Charmed Carmen
by Coca-Cola3012
Summary: COMPLETE! There's a new girl in TwoBit's class. She's a blonde, and we all know how TwoBit feels about blondes. But there's something about her that's...unnatural. Can TwoBit help her before it's too late?
1. Charmed Carmen

**Charmed Carmen**

Disclaimer: The Ella Enchanted idea belongs to the genius Gail Carson Levine and the Outsiders belong to S.E. Hinton.

Two-Bit Matthews took his usual seat at the back of the class in Trigonometry, putting his big feet up on his desk and making himself comfortable. It was the first day of his fourth year as a junior.

The stern looking teacher, Ms. Williams, marched up to his desk and regarded him over her glasses. She was a thin, pinched looking old lady, and Two-Bit often thought that she needed some humor in her dull life. Kind of like the fuzz.

"Well, Mr. Matthews, I see you are joining us _again,"_ she remarked, sounding exasperated. Two-Bit nodded. "Yep. I just love the joys of public education," he said happily, grinning toothily.

Ms. Williams sighed, shook her head, and walked away. The bell rang, and Two-Bit grinned even wider. Another year of slacking off. He loved it. He didn't know why, he just did.

The new juniors settled in, tittering excitedly. Most of them were Socs. Ah, well…

Ms. Williams was dragging a girl up to the front of the class. She was slender and short, with shoulder length, dark blond hair that she had tied back, and large, curious brown eyes.

Two-Bit immediately sat up with interest. _Damn, she's hot!_ Two-Bit thought. _Steady, now Matthews,_ he reprimanded himself. _She's sixteen. You're nineteen. _

Ms. Williams cleared her throat. "Class, this is Carmen Ravencroft. She just moved here from London." Carmen gave the class a weak smile.

"You can sit there for today, dear, it's the only empty seat," she said, pointing to the seat next to Two-Bit. _Cha-ching!_ Two-Bit thought happily. She practically ran to her seat and smiled nervously when Two-Bit winked at her.

Two-Bit watched her throughout the entire class. She did her work quietly and only spoke when called on. There was something funny about her though. Whenever Ms. Williams called on her, she answered promptly and accurately, like a machine. Other than that, she seemed fairly normal.

Two-Bit searched for her in his classes for the rest of the day. He saw her in English and later saw her signing up for the Debate Club. Two-Bit shrugged. Why not? He signed up too.

"Two-Bit? Debate Club? I must be dreaming," laughed Ponyboy from behind him. Two-Bit turned to a grinning Ponyboy indignantly. "I happen to take pleasure in the art of argument," Two-Bit said.

Ponyboy crossed his arms and gave Two-Bit a "yeah-right" look. Two-Bit grinned sheepishly. "Alright, alright, there's a hot girl I just saw signing up," he admitted. Ponyboy shook his head and laughed, walking away.

Two-Bit shrugged. He checked the sign-up list. The first meeting was tomorrow, after school, at four.

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Two-Bit lobbed his crushed beer can, making a perfect basket. Ponyboy walked by and stared at him.

"Two-Bit? Isn't your debate meeting now?" The ever scatter-brained Two-Bit froze.

"Oh, crap!"

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Two-Bit ran in and leaned against the doorframe, breathing hard. "Two-Bit Matthews?" demanded a too-familiar voice that made Two-Bit's blood run cold.

"M-Ms. Williams?" Two-Bit squeaked. "Y-you're the club sponsor?"

"Indeed," she said. "Glad you could finally join us." Carmen smiled faintly at him from her seat, which was an improvement over the other club members, all Socs, who were giving him dirty looks.

Two-Bit slumped in his seat. _This had better be worth it,_ he thought grumpily.

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Whaddya think? It seems that all my stories are about some story crossed with the Outsiders. Hmmm.

Review.


	2. Cursed? Yeah Right

Chapter Two: Cursed? Yeah right.

Disclaimer: See last chapter.

Ms. Williams took her position at the front of the room, clearing her throat. "Alright, people, we're going to start off the debate club with a bit of historical debating."

Two-Bit groaned inwardly and sunk down further in his seat. Ms. Williams continued. "We're going to debate whether or not it was right for President Truman to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. Who will volunteer to start the debate?"

A Soc girl's hand shot up. "Alright, Beth, come up," Ms. Williams said. "And…Carmen, you come up. Beth, why don't you give us your opening argument?" Beth and Carmen came and stood at the front of the class.

Beth cleared her throat and began. "President Truman was clearly correct. It was the only way to end World War Two before even more people were lost to the war."

Ms. Williams nodded her approval and said, "Now, Carmen, state your opening argument."

Carmen had a soft British-accented voice, but spoke with emotion. "President Truman was completely wrong in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He had no right to invoke destruction on innocent people who had nothing to do with the war."

Beth interrupted her. "There was no other way to end the war. He was a good president and we would do good to have more presidents like him," she concluded.

"Sure, he was a good president. And a good murderer of innocent citizens, too," Carmen said sarcastically. Giggles could be heard from a few students.

Beth turned red. She looked mad. Two-Bit sat up. This was getting interesting. "And just what would you know about it, you damn Brit? It's a good thing we kicked you out in 1776," Beth spat.

"I may not know so much about American history or views, but I do know that your president was heartless to harm people who had no power over either starting or ending the war," Carmen said, her voice shaking with rage.

"Girls," Ms. Williams said warningly. Beth ignored her. "Stupid Brit," she snapped. "You don't know the first thing about being an American during World War Two."

Carmen acted surprised. "And you do? You're older than I thought." Two-Bit had to laugh at this one, and he wasn't alone.

Maybe it was the fact that she was being outsmarted or maybe it was because the entire debate club was laughing at her, but for whatever reason, Beth flushed scarlet and practically screamed, "You're stupid! Go on, say it! You're stupid and you don't know what you're talking about!"

"I'm stupid and I don't know what I'm talking about," Carmen said automatically. There was dead silence. Carmen's eyes grew wider as if she just realized what she had said.

Ms. Williams jumped up. "Alright! I think that's enough for one day. Meeting adjourned."

Outside, Beth marched up to Carmen and screamed in her face. "You think you're so smart and all that? You stupid—!" Beth went on to say a few colorful things that Two-Bit thought he would never hear coming out of a "nice" girl's mouth.

"Beth," Carmen interrupted. "Calm down, already. It's _debate club._ Not a matter of life or death." Beth floundered around for something to say, her face getting redder and redder.

She finally let out a strangled cry and shoved Carmen hard with both hands, so hard that Carmen actually stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. Beth stomped off.

Two-Bit saw this as an opportunity to talk to her and offered her a hand up. "Bloody hell," Carmen muttered. "Thanks," she said gratefully to Two-Bit. "Are all your American girls like that?"

Two-Bit thought. "Naw," he said. "Just her. She's a drama queen."

"I might have figured," Carmen muttered. She walked with Two-Bit to the end of the street, and Two-Bit was surprised when she turned the corner with him.

"Are you following me?" he teased. "Wishful thinking, I presume. No, I live about three streets down from here," Carmen said, smiling.

"No way!" Two-Bit laughed. "You live right by me!" Carmen cracked a grin. "No way!"

"Yeah! But what's a nice girl like you doing on the east side of town?" Two-Bit wanted to know. Carmen looked embarrassed. "We're not so wealthy. It's the only place we could afford, my mother and I." She seemed confused. "What do you mean, 'nice girl?'"

"Well," Two-Bit started. "It goes like this…" He then proceeded to explain the whole Soc-greaser thing. Carmen was staring at him with an open mouth when he finished. "Did I go too fast?" Two-Bit asked, seeing her expression.

"You bloody _idiots,"_ Carmen said in awe. Two-Bit was surprised. "Huh?" he demanded, staring at her.

"Are you telling me that Socs and greasers can't get along because one has madras and one has long hair? You bloody _imbeciles!"_

"That's not what it's like!" Two-Bit protested. "That's certainly what it sounds like!" Carmen exclaimed. "Then what is it like, I'd like to know?"

"You don't have these problems in London?" Two-Bit wanted to know. "Well, we have street gangs and cliques, if that's what you mean, but this is crazy! We don't go around beating each other up, looking for trouble just because somebody's different!"

"Not even racism?" Two-Bit asked, thinking he had finally got her on something. She smirked, seeing right through him. "My best friend happens to be African," she said quietly.

Two-Bit was stunned. She was like…well, like Ponyboy. "Hey, Carmen?" he asked her, once she appeared to have simmered down.

"Yes?" she asked. "How'd you like to meet one of my friends? He's a sophomore at school," he explained. Carmen shrugged. "Alright, I don't see why not."

"C'mon," Two-Bit said, dragging her by the hand. "He must have gotten home from track by now."

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Two-Bit barged in, yelling, "Hi, everybody!" Nobody responded. He dragged Carmen into the next room. "C'mon, meet…whoever's here!"

"Hey, Two-Bit. Another blonde? Why am I not surprised," laughed a handsome boy wearing a DX station shirt.

"Hi, Sodapop," Carmen said, smiling. Soda stared at her. "What are you, psychic?" Carmen bit back a giggle and pointed to his shirt. "Your name's right there."

Soda looked down at his shirt. "Oh. Well, welcome to the Curtis', our door's always open if you need anything," he said, waving a hand vaguely.

Carmen raised her eyebrows. "That's pretty generous, considering you don't even know me."

Soda shrugged. "Well, you know Two-Bit, and he's here so often anyway that he might as well live here. Tell me your name?" he said questioningly.

"Carmen Ravencroft," she said promptly. Soda looked at Two-Bit, who shrugged. _I don't know why she gets like that,_ Two-Bit thought. _So why're you looking at me?_

Two-Bit turned to Carmen. "Let's not wear out our welcomes," he suggested, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "Let's go to the park."

"Okay," Carmen said, and followed him to the park. Two-Bit sped up midway. "Walk faster," he said out of the corner of his mouth. Carmen walked faster. "Socs," he explained, jerking a thumb back at the red Mustang that was following them.

Carmen rolled her eyes. Two-Bit noticed. "I know you don't approve, but they'll kill us," he said darkly. Carmen had to practically jog to keep up with his long strides.

The car pulled up beside them. "Hey, pretty girl," hollered a boy from the front, his window rolled down. Carmen ignored them and walked a bit faster.

"Hey, girlie. Want a ride? Better than walking with a greaser," the guy yelled. Carmen ignored him, and, annoyed, the buy shouted, "Answer me, girl!"

Carmen turned to face him and snapped, "No, I don't want a ride. I want you to keep driving and leave us alone." Two-Bit stared at her. She smacked her forehead. "Shit," she mumbled.

The boy stepped out of the car, followed by four other angry Socs. They looked like ravenous wolves.

"Run!" yelped Two-Bit. Carmen ran, following Two-Bit down the nearest alley. He caught his breath and smacked her.

"Ow! What was that for?" she demanded. "What do you think it was for?" Two-Bit yelled. "You could have gotten us killed!"

"Oh, like you wouldn't have mouthed off if I hadn't said something first?" Carmen snapped. Two-Bit felt like punching her. "Why, Carmen, just why?" he demanded, leaning against the wall, suddenly exhausted.

"I couldn't help it," Carmen said sulkily. Two-Bit glared at her. "Right, your mouth has a mind of its own," he said grouchily.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Carmen said. "You'd call me crazy."

"I'm calling you crazy now!" Two-Bit yelled. "Tell me what's going on!"

"I'm cursed," Carmen said automatically. Two-Bit stared at her. "You're right. I don't believe you."

Carmen took a deep breath. "Two-Bit. Please listen. You wan to know, so I'm telling you. Promise you'll listen without interrupting, saying anything, and promise that you won't breathe a word of this to _anyone,"_ she said, her voice low, desperate and urgent and pleading.

Two-Bit nodded solemnly. There wasn't a trace of his famous grin on his face anywhere.

Carmen took a deep breath and began to explain…

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I'm ending it on a cliffhanger to be cruel. Review to find out what's happening. Why did Carmen _really_ move to Tulsa?


	3. Explanation

Chapter Three: Explanation

Carmen took a deep breath and began to explain. "I'm not from London. I'm just using that as a cover up because my accent is British. I'm from a place called Lilanazar."

Two-Bit's nose wrinkled as his face twisted in confusion. "Lilanazar?" he repeated in confusion. "What the hell kind of name is—?" He stopped at the sight of Carmen's face. She leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at him.

Two-Bit sighed and put up his hands in surrender. "Alright, sorry. No more interruptions." Carmen uncrossed her arms.

"Like I was saying," she continued. "I was born in Lilanazar. You won't find it on any map. It's uncharted…" she hesitated. "Magically sealed to anyone except anyone who wasn't born there."

Two-Bit opened his mouth, then shut it. Carmen couldn't stop a small smile from flittering across her lips for a split second. "Yeah. It's magic. It was created by a gang of wizards in the mid-1300's. Merlin was their ringleader."

Carmen couldn't help but grin when Two-Bit's jaw dropped. "Merlin?" he sputtered, forgetting his promise. "Yeah, Merlin. Shut up," Carmen added. Two-Bit did as he was told.

"When I was born, I was restless and wouldn't stop crying. And in Lilanazar, a child's midwife is the child's fairy godmother. Lucky me, I got stuck with Twyla," Carmen said bitterly.

"Who's Twyla?" Two-Bit said. Carmen scowled at him. "One more word out of you and I'll duck tape your mouth shut," she threatened. Two-Bit made a zipping motion across his lips and fell silent.

"Twyla is the worst fairy godmother on the planet," Carmen said, rolling her eyes. "I wouldn't stop crying, and Twyla made me obedient." She stopped talking, and Two-Bit stared at her.

"She…made you obedient?" he repeated. "Yeah. She thought she was doing me a favor," Carmen said, rolling her eyes again. "It's a curse. I have to do anything anyone says. I can't help it." She finished with a murderous look in her eyes.

"So…why can't Twyla take back the curse?" Two-Bit asked. Carmen's gaze met his, and he was surprised to see sorrow and anger mingling in her eyes.

"She was caught," Carmen said with contempt. "She's not an authorized fairy godmother. So the magical fuzz caught her and snapped her wand. And only the caster of a spell can reverse it," she ended bitterly.

Two-Bit stared at her. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to _have_ to do what everyone said. "So…why are you here?"

Carmen's eyes changed, now blazing with hate. "I'm here because of my father," she said coldly, not meeting Two-Bit's eye.

"And I'm supposed to read your mind?" Two-Bit demanded. Carmen looked at him, and took a deep, shuddering breath, seeming to calm down.

"Well, my father was a wizard. An expert in astronomy. He worked only at nighttime on his spells, and he slept during the day. We hardly ever saw him, so he never found out that I was cursed. Until just a few months ago…" she trailed off, looking distant. Two-Bit gave her three seconds before he cleared his throat loudly.

"Huh? Oh. Well, a few months ago, he finally figured it out. He started keeping me up all night for his spells…they're evil spells, Two-Bit. Pure evil. They cause destruction and kill people," she said, looking haunted and frightened.

"What kind of spells?" Two-Bit asked, fascinated. He wasn't sure if this was true, but it certainly explained why Carmen did, quite literally, what she was always told.

"Well, ever wonder about the Great Chicago Fire, or the influenza epidemic, or of Atlantis sinking into the sea?" Two-Bit nodded. "Well, that was my dad. And his coworkers, wizards like him."

"So, why are you here now?" Two-Bit wanted to know.

"As soon as my mother found out, we left. We traveled from place to place in the mortal world, but he found us every time. We've always managed to lose him, but he gets more powerful every time. We hope we're safe here, but we can never be sure."

Two-Bit's jaw dropped. _I must be dreaming,_ he thought. "So," he said, struggling to take this in. "How have you managed to lose him each time?"

For the first time, Carmen actually grinned. "My mother's a sorceress. She's been training me to become one too. I'm her apprentice," she said with satisfaction.

Two-Bit grinned too. "Really? You're a witch?" Carmen scowled at him. "Not witch. I'm not a cranky old crone with a broomstick. I'm a _sorceress."_

Two-Bit was confused. "What's the difference?" he demanded. Carmen sighed.

"It's…complicated. Witches, like I said, are hags in pointy hats on broomsticks. Enchantresses are more…sparkly. They're dazzlers. Wizards are not all bad, just some night crawlers like my father," she said, brown eyes darkening.

"But most wizards are good, like Merlin. Wizardry is like math. Lots of diagrams, a lot of gibberish terms that could just as easily be replaced with normal English, and geometry. Sorcerers and sorceresses work with sky magic, and the abstract mind. The sun, the moon, the wind, memory reading, dream scoping."

Two-Bit nodded, reeling from all the information. "So…" he ventured. "What can you do so far?" He was eager to see some real magic.

Carmen shrugged. _"Not much. I'm still learning."_ Two-Bit heard her voice very faintly. But…her lips hadn't moved. Yet he had still heard her voice. His jaw dropped. "Can you read my mind?" he exclaimed, almost fearfully.

Carmen shook her head. "Not yet," she said normally. "But I have to get rid of this curse somehow, before my father finds me," she finished, looking hunted and scared.

"What did he want you to do?" Two-Bit said without thinking. Carmen took a deep breath and just shook her head. Then she looked him in the eye fiercely, saying, "If you order me to tell you, I'll kill you." She looked like she meant it.

Two-Bit asked instead, "Why did you tell me all this?"

"You told me to," Carmen said simply. Two-Bit blinked at her. "W-what?" he stuttered.

"You told me to. You said, 'Tell me what's going on.' So I had to," she said with a shrug. Two-Bit stared, embarrassed. "Oh," he said.

"But," Carmen said thoughtfully, "Maybe you can help me." Two-Bit's head snapped up to snarl at her. "Help you!"

"Well, if you don't want to, I can't do anything about it," Carmen said quietly. Two-Bit heard the note of obvious envy in her voice and felt bad for her. "But…what am I supposed to do?" he asked.

"I don't know. I have a couple of books on wizardry…maybe you could teach yourself to be a wizard," Carmen suggested. Two-Bit laughed. "Me? A wizard? I'm human, not one of those weirdoes born in…what is it?"

"Lilanazar. But like I said, wizardry is more math than anything else. Trust me. If you want, I'll make you a wizard, but you have to promise to help me in return."

Two-Bit thought it over. _Hmmm…I can be a wizard and pull a rabbit out of a hat, and help a hot blonde chick and maybe get her to fall head over heels for me._ "I'll do it," he said firmly.

Carmen grinned. Two-Bit didn't realize she was listening to his thoughts. Poor fool. Oh well. At least she would be free. "Alright then. Do you want me to make you a wizard now, or later?"

Two-Bit was dumbstruck. "Huh?" he said stupidly. "To be a wizard, you do need a bit of magic. Since you weren't born with it, I'll have to give you some of mine," Carmen explained. Two-Bit grinned his famous grin.

"Okay," he said happily. He was like a kid in a candy shop. Or, rather, like himself in _any_ shop, famous shoplifter that he was.

Carmen said, "Give me your hand," holding out her own, and she closed her eyes, instructing Two-Bit to do the same.

Two-Bit could feel a tingling sensation that started in his fingertips but spread all through the rest of his body, even to the tips of his greasy hair. He saw a flash of blinding light even with his eyes closed and he felt Carmen dropping his hand. "You can open your eyes now."

Two-Bit opened his eyes. Carmen was regarding him concernedly. "Feel any different?" she asked. "No, not really," Two-Bit said truthfully. "Good," she said relieved. She pulled from behind her back two thick paperback books. She hadn't been holding them a second ago.

"These are some basic wizardry manuals. Study a bit each night, practice a bit, but don't spread your magic to outside the room you're working in. that can cause serious trouble. The Salem witch trials started because some nitwit wasn't careful enough."

Two-Bit looked at the books, pained. "Do I have to read them?" Carmen put one hand over her eyes. "Did you just totally tune out what I just said?"

"Sorry. Say it one more time." Carmen did automatically. "It," she said. Two-Bit scowled. "I meant, say that last paragraph once more," he said. The words were barely out of his mouth when she did.

"Stop giving me orders, please," Carmen implored with a pained look. "I hate following them."

Two-Bit shrugged. "I don't generally give orders," he said. "Don't get much of a chance to. Who listens to greasers anyway? You pull a switchblade on somebody once and it's all over." Carmen had to smile at that one, even though it wasn't that funny.

"Where'd you get these anyway?" Two-Bit asked. "My mother stole them from my father just before we left Lilanazar. She said it's best to 'know thine enemy,'" Carmen said, her eyes lighting up mischievously.

Two-Bit laughed, shaking his head. Man, this girl was a piece of work.

"C'mon, let's go home," Two-Bit said. Carmen started to walk automatically in step with him. "It's a good thing we're neighbors," she commented. Two-Bit then realized what he had done. "Sorry. Don't follow my orders unless you want to," he said. Carmen relaxed.

And so, with that, the sorceress-in-training and wizard-in-training walked home together, parting at their own homes, vowing to see each other the next day.

Two-Bit flopped on his bed as soon as he could and opened the first book, entitled "Beginner's Wizardry." He started to read, really read, and try to learn, for the first time in his life.

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Two-Bit a wizard? What has Carmen done? Two-Bit's a good person, but I shudder to think of the results of him with magical powers and his crazy sense of humor.

Review for the next chapter, coming soon. Ah, god, school is taking up all of my time. Luckily I finished it quick today. REVIEW.


	4. TwoBit, Resident Wizard Of Tulsa

Chapter 4: Two-Bit, Resident Wizard of Tulsa

Disclaimer: Doesn't it go without saying that I own the plot, sort of, and Carmen, but not The Outsiders or Ella Enchanted?

Half an hour later, Two-Bit checked the number of pages in the back of the book. He frowned slightly, flipping through all the pages. _Why aren't there any page numbers?_ He wondered.

He kept reading until his eyes itched with tiredness. He was just ending the chapter titled _Your Magic Wand_ when he drifted off. And dreamed…

…Two-Bit was on a chessboard. He was standing on a white square. As hard as he tried, he couldn't move a single muscle in his body.

From what he could see with his eyes frozen staring straight ahead, he was on a chessboard full of pieces set ready to play, but instead of white and black pieces, there were greasers in black leather jackets and Socs in white madras.

Somebody was picking up the pieces and moving them around, like they were playing a game. A game of chess. Two-Bit was lifted into the air, where he panicked silently and motionlessly. Then someone was shaking him, and calling his name. His _real_ name…

"Keith? Keith? Keith! Keith, wake up! KEITH!" Two-Bit opened his eyes. His mother was standing over him, looking concerned.

"Wake up, Keith. It's time for school. And what _are_ you reading? 'Beginner's Wizardry'?" She shook her head and walked away.

_Man, wizardry sure gives you weird dreams, _Two-Bit thought vaguely. He showered, dressed, slicked his hair back with half a tub of grease, and hopped into his car to drive to school.

He pulled in and parked, laughing to himself at some weird, Two-Bit joke. He strolled into class and flopped down in his chair, putting up his feet and relaxing.

"Get your big feet off my chair," a voice said crankily. Two-Bit grinned, looking up. "Who's gonna make m—oh. Hi, Carmen," he said cheerfully, putting his feet down.

"Hi yourself, Two-Bit. Get any reading done?" she asked, lowering her voice. Two-Bit nodded. "Yep. But how's this gonna help you?"

Carmen looked sheepish and blushed pink. "I dunno," she confessed. "I have no idea how to get rid of this damn curse. I just figured that two sources of different magic are better than one."

Two-Bit nodded slowly, frowning slightly. "So, let me get this straight. I'm a wizard to help you, but you have no idea how or why?" Carmen nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. But also because I had to." Two-Bit looked suspicious. "What do you mean you had to?" he asked carefully.

Carmen sighed and started to explain. "You can't tell anyone that you're a magical being unless they're one, too. You ordered me to explain, so I had to, but I also had to make you magic too, otherwise we would both be executed by the rulers of Lilanazar. Mortals can't know about magic, and magical beings can't go spreading that around. So, you had to become a wizard so we wouldn't die."

"Wow," Two-Bit said. "That's harsh." Carmen shook her head. "Not in Lilanazar. Compared to what they _could_ do to you, an execution is practically kind." Two-Bit swallowed nervously.

"So," Carmen continued. "What do you say? Do you really want to be a wizard? You already have the magic. If you don't want to use it, fine. You just can't go spreading it around. And maybe in a few months I'll be gone again, for good."

Two-Bit cleared his throat. "Of course I want to be a wizard," he said, trying to grin. "I'll help you. And I'll keep my mouth shut too," he said, grinning. Carmen smiled. _She's got cute dimples,_ Two-Bit noticed.

"Okay. See you after school," Carmen said. "Wha—? Wait a minute. Who said anything about after school?" Two-Bit demanded.

"Hello, debate club," Carmen said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Two-Bit sat back, bewildered. _Oh,_ he thought. He had forgotten. Again.

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Carmen met him after school at debate club. She smiled at him as they took their seats and Ms. Williams called the meeting to order.

Two-Bit let his mind wander until Carmen nudged him hard in the ribs with her elbow. "What?" he said loudly and irritated.

"Mr. Matthews, I was just asking you to counter Jason on today's debate on prohibition," Ms. Williams said, glaring at Two-Bit over her glasses.

"Oh. Right," Two-Bit said, standing and strolling to the front of the class. _Uh,_ he thought. _What's prohibition?_

"_It's where alcohol is illegal,"_ he heard Carmen's voice in his head. He turned back to her. She cocked her eyebrow at him and she smiled ever so slightly.

_Illegal alcohol! _Two-Bit thought indignantly. "Prohibition is wrong!" he blurted out. Ms. Williams raised an eyebrow and Carmen slapped her forehead with the heel of her hand.

"Thank you, Mr. Matthews," Ms. Williams said stiffly. "Was that your opening argument?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Two-Bit said sheepishly. Jason made his opening remark, and the debate proceeded from there. Two-Bit didn't have anything else to say besides "Prohibition is wrong! Bring on the beers!" So Carmen helped him along, telepathically of course.

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Later, outside, Two-Bit was jumping up and down excitedly. "Do I get my wand? Do I get my wand?" he was asking happily.

Carmen was leaning against the wall for support because she was laughing so hard, so hard that she wasn't actually making any sound but her cheeks were bright red and tears were streaming down her face.

"T-Two-Bit," she finally managed to gasp out. "S-s-stop. Please, s-stop!" Two-Bit stopped and waited patiently for her laughter to subside. Well, patiently for Two-Bit.

Five seconds passed. "Stop laughing," Two-Bit said. Carmen stopped immediately. She scowled at him, brushing away her tears as the color faded from her face.

"Yeah, you get your wand, but not necessarily today. It can be anything, from a tree twig to a car antenna. It'll come to you," Carmen said patiently. _Does he read anything carefully? Or is he just scatterbrained?_ She wondered.

Two-Bit sagged. He remembered reading that, now. "Oh," he said, disappointed. It might take forever to find it! He turned and started shuffling away unhappily, but promptly tripped over something.

"Wow, that was quick," Carmen commented. "What are you talking about?" Two-Bit demanded, standing up and brushing himself off, glancing down to see what he had tripped over. His eyes widened when he saw what it was.

"My old blade!" he cried joyfully. It was, indeed, his old, razor sharp, black handled switchblade that he had lost since Dally died. "How'd it end up here?" he wondered aloud.

Carmen shrugged. "How would I know? But it seems to me that you've found your wand."

"And just how do you know that?" Two-Bit demanded impatiently. "Well, it could be the way it's glowing," Carmen said brightly.

Two-Bit glanced at it, and dropped it with a yelp. It stopped glowing as soon as he did so. He picked it up, and it glowed again. "That's weird," he commented, so intelligently.

"Yeah, but you found your wand," Carmen said. "Yeah," Two-Bit said, realization finally dawning on him. "That's tuff. That really is."

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It was late at night. Two-Bit was exhausted. He flopped on his bed, sinking into the softness of the sheets and pillow.

He and Carmen had trained together for hours, she as a sorceress, and he as a wizard. Two-Bit had met Carmen's mother. She was a lot like Carmen: blonde, intelligent, and beautiful, with a sparkly personality. Two-Bit was surprised at how bossy she was, but, he reasoned, with a daughter like Carmen, it was hard not to be.

His last thoughts were _Man, am I glad I got my switch back,_ before he drifted into deep sleep.

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Whaddya think? Kind of silly, I know. But whatever. Review and tell me what you think.

Sooner the reviews come, the sooner the next chapter comes up.


	5. Russell, The Lion

Chapter Five: Russell, The Lion

Two-Bit was awakened rudely by the telephone ringing. He rolled over, cursing, and answered the phone.

"What?" he snapped grouchily. "Two-Bit?" a voice said tentatively on the other line. It took Two-Bit a moment to figure out who it was.

"Ponyboy?" he said, surprised. "What are you doing, calling me early in the morning on a Saturday?"

"Whaddya mean, early? It's four in the afternoon!" Two-Bit glanced at the clock and then out the window. "…Oh," he said sheepishly.

"Yeah," Ponyboy said. "Anyway, I'm at the movie house. Can you come get me? Soda and Darry are both working."

Two-Bit sighed, pretending to be annoyed. "Alright, I guess I can be spared," he teased. Ponyboy saw right through him and said, "Thanks, Two-Bit," gratefully.

Two-Bit sighed and went to get dressed. _At least Ponyboy used his head this time,_ Two-Bit thought. _He could've gotten jumped._

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Ten minutes later, Two-Bit was driving along, whistling to himself. He picked up Ponyboy and started to drive him home, telling him some wild story and trying to concentrate on the road.

"…So then, I was telling Steve, 'Man, that chick's so dumb,' and then he's like—" Two-Bit stopped abruptly when Ponyboy grabbed his arm.

"Two-Bit! Look!" Ponyboy yelped, pointing out the window. Two-Bit looked where Ponyboy was and his eyes widened. He hit the brakes very hard, very suddenly, and they screeched in protest.

Two-Bit stared for a moment, battling with himself. He figured he had a few minutes. The Curtis' house wasn't too far from here. He started driving again.

"She's got it under control, kid. No point making trouble where we're not wanted."

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Carmen was walking through town, just exploring, something she hadn't had a chance to do since she got here. There wasn't much else to do on a Saturday afternoon.

She stopped for a soda in a drugstore. _I really can't remember the last time I had a soda,_ she realized with shock. _Man, does it feel good to have one after such a long time._

She finished her soda, paid for it, and stepped outside, continuing on her way. _This day has been normal so far,_ she thought.

_Too normal,_ she decided. _Something has to happen._ And what do you know, something did happen.

A tall, lean boy stepped out of an alley in front of her. He had golden hair and eyes to match, reminding her of a lion. Her heart caught in her throat and she stopped dead in her tracks.

For a moment they just stared at each other. Finally, Carmen regained her voice. "Russell?" she said softly. Hate burned inside of her, and she could feel her rage bubbling just below the surface.

Russell smirked. "Carmen," he said with satisfaction. "I thought I'd find you here." Carmen's delicate face was set with anger. "Of course," she said bitterly. "You're a Finder."

"Yep. It was no problem to track you down," he said, grinning in a way that made her sick.

"You're nothing more than a hound dog," she said through gritted teeth. "A hunting dog, that serves the hunter and does nothing but chase their prey all their life."

Russell's smile quickly faded to a look of contempt. "Let's end this, here, now," he said. Carmen ignored him and demanded, "Who sent you here?"

She had a pretty good idea, and Russell proved her right. "Your dear old dad," he replied. "I may be a hound dog…but it's worth it for what I get paid."

Carmen rolled her eyes. "Oh, I am so sure," she said. _"Go to hell!"_ she screamed. Any mortal would have taken it as an insult. But a sorceress like Carmen meant it quite literally.

The winds blew and the ghouls of the devilish dead howled, reaching their bony arms for Russell. But suddenly, it all stopped. Just like that, without any warning.

Carmen looked around, bewildered. "What _happened?"_ she blurted. Russell laughed scornfully. "Not bad, Carmen. But you underestimate me. I've been learning a bit of wizardry myself, from your father, no less."

"Oh," Carmen said, with mock realization. "No wonder. You don't need to go to hell, you come from there." It was a horrible comeback, but Russell took it personally.

"You'll pay, Carmen. For everything. Everything you ever did to me," he threatened. Carmen was about to ask what he was talking about, when she stopped.

She remembered. Oh, man, did she remember. It was because of Russell that her father had found out about her obedience.

Forcing herself to focus on the present, she turned to Russell angrily. "Alright, Russell," she said. "I know you're here on account of my dad. But this is a big city," she gestured around, "And you'll never find me again. Not if I can help it."

Russell just grinned. "What makes you think that?" he mocked. "This," Carmen said simply. She took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and took a running start…

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Two-Bit dropped Ponyboy off hastily and drove like the wind back to where he had seen Carmen facing off with that weird guy.

He parked on a side street nearby and ran over. He stopped short at the sight before him. _Uhhh… _Two-Bit thought. _What exactly is going on?_

That was definitely Carmen…for a second. Until she turned into a panther. And that was definitely the guy he seen earlier…until he turned into a lion. _Shapeshifters._ The word drifted slowly across his mind.

Then they were human again. Two-Bit almost laughed out loud as he saw sweet, delicate Carmen snarling and holding the guy in a headlock with one hand and a hammerlock with the other.

Carmen spotted Two-Bit and yelled to him across the street. "Two-Bit!" she shouted desperately. "Forgetting spell! On him! Just point your wand and say _Oblivio!_ Hurry!" she added as the guy growled and struggled.

Two-Bit hastened to do what she said. Immediately the guy got a strange, dreamy look on his face and stopped struggling. Carmen released him and he gazed up at her.

Two-Bit jogged across the street in time to hear him ask her, "Who are you? What am I doing here?"

Carmen rolled her eyes and hoisted him up to a standing position. He staggered drunkenly and almost fell over.

Carmen pulled him back up, only to give him a hard shove into the street and say, _"Go to hell!"_

The guy staggered into the street and vanished with the wind and howling of the desolate ghosts.

Two-Bit turned to her and demanded, "Tell me what's going on. NOW." So Carmen did so, immediately. The whole story.

Two-Bit stared at her with an open mouth. "So now your dad is gonna know where you are?" he groaned, his disappointment evident. Carmen shook her head.

"Nope," she said happily. "You saw what just happened, didn't you? You modified his memory. He barely remembers who he is, let alone what just happened. Plus I sent him to hell," she added triumphantly.

"So you won't have to leave?" Two-Bit said joyfully. Carmen shook her head no. Two-Bit exploded with exuberance.

"YIPPEE!" he shouted, leaping into the air and twirling Carmen around. "Okay, okay, contain yourself," she scolded.

Two-Bit stopped, but not because she told him to. "Wait. What exactly did he mean, 'everything'? What was he talking about?"

Carmen sighed. She should have seen that coming. "Remember when I told you my dad wanted me to do something, and there was no way I would ever do it, and I told you that if you ever ordered me to tell you I would kill you?"

Two-Bit nodded. He remembered that very well. "Well," Carmen continued. "That applies to this too. There are just some things that you can never find out."

Two-Bit nodded. He was dying to find out, but Carmen looked as thought she meant it. "Okay," he agreed.

Carmen changed the subject. "Well, congratulations, Mr. Wizard," she said. "You just cast your first real spell."

Two-Bit stopped. He grinned widely. "Yeah," he said. "I did, didn't I?"

"Yep. I'm proud of you, Two-Bit," Carmen said sincerely. Two-Bit laughed, but on the inside, he was feeling very weird. He had never felt like that before. Was it…could it be…? Nah. It couldn't be.

Could it?

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It was late at night, and Carmen was tired. But she couldn't sleep. She was worried.

Two-Bit was new at wizardry, and she didn't know how long his memory spell would last. If she was lucky, it would last long enough to remain permanent. But it was very unlikely.

And then Russell would remember, and tell her father, and he would come after her. He was sure to come after her if he knew.

He would kill her mother. He would kill her, after he had used her. And he would kill Two-Bit too. She couldn't let that happen.

Tossing and turning, these thoughts churned in her mind. She finally fell into a fitful sleep, punctuated by weird dreams of lions and switchblades.

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I hope you liked that chapter more than I did. Review and tell me what you think. I'll update as fast as the reviews come. : )


	6. Breaking The Spell

Chapter Six: Breaking The Spell

Russell writhed in the pits of hell. He was supposed to remember something, he knew. He just wished he knew what…

All around him, wicked souls screamed in agony and demons danced in ecstasy. Flames licked Russell's shoes and smoke choked him when he tried to inhale.

He saw red all around him, no matter where he turned, no matter where he looked or what he did, if he closed his eyes or kept them open, all he could see was red. The visions of fire and devils appeared to him in his mind's eye.

He could never know if they were real or if he was going mad. But that element, of course, was what made it hell.

He didn't know how long he had been here, or what was happening. After a while, he couldn't even remember who he was or if he was even human.

His mind strained, searching for what was erased, or possibly just hidden temporarily. The wizard's spell…

The wizard's spell was hiding something from him. He could _feel_ the spell in his mind, flashing purple and emitting mocking sparks. It was thick and strong, impossible to ignore, nearly tangible.

Whatever the spell was keeping from him, it was still there. If it wasn't, the spell wouldn't be either. It would have taken the memory with it, for that was the purpose of the memory spell.

The spell had to be broken. Somehow, the spell had to be broken so he could remember and know what he had to know and therefore get out of this hellish prison…But how?

And then…

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Carmen lay on her side, still fast asleep. She hadn't managed to fall asleep until way past midnight, when the turbulent dreams finally stopped. A single lock of her hair fell across her peaceful face, and her only movements were from her breathing.

Two green, clawed hands reached for her throat…

Carmen's eyes flew open and gasped, sitting straight up. She raised a hand, ready to strike or fling a curse, but stopped herself just in time.

"Bloody hell, Two-Bit, scare me to death!" she gasped. Two-Bit grinned and pulled off the Halloween gloves he had lifted from a store.

Carmen noticed the gloves and rolled her eyes. "Kleptomaniac," she muttered under her breath. Two-Bit's brow wrinkled in confusion. "What did you just call me?" he demanded.

"Kleptomaniac. It's a mental disorder where you _have_ to shoplift wherever you go," she explained. Two-Bit threw a glove at her, hitting her smack in the forehead.

"I am NOT a kelp…too…whatever the hell," he said loudly. Carmen threw off the bedcovers and yawned, stretching.

"Why are you here?" she asked sleepily. "Well, its Sunday, I'm bored, and you're here and so am I. Whaddya want to do?" Two-Bit asked cheerfully.

Carmen flopped back on her pillow. "Go read a book," she groaned. "I want to sleep." Two-Bit, however, wasn't about to allow that.

"Wake up, sleepyhead," he insisted, shaking her. Carmen batted him away and mumbled some unintelligible and probably unfriendly words into her pillow.

Two-Bit sighed and sat back. He wasn't about to give up. _She looks a lot younger when she's sleeping,_ he mused. _Even awake she doesn't look sixteen. _

Suddenly, an idea entered his head and he grinned broadly. _That's not very nice,_ he reprimanded himself. Then, _Tough luck. She's going to wake up right this instant!_

He pulled his switchblade out of his pocket and flicked it open. His breath caught in his throat at the click it made opening, and he waited to see if Carmen had heard it and woken up.

She remained asleep, breathing steadily and rhythmically. Two-Bit lowered his gleaming, glowing knife silently to her neck and began to whisper the ancient spell. _"Arazs jhoutm rie'f!opf…"_

Unfortunately, he never got to finish the spell. Carmen's hand shot out and caught hold of the blade, wrenching it out of a shocked Two-Bit's grasp.

"Nice try," she commented. "All right, you, I'm up…" she muttered, rolling over reluctantly.

Two-Bit was speechless for a minute until he regained his voice. "You just reached out and grabbed it!" he said, looking both impressed and appalled.

"Yeah, and your point is?" Carmen asked, her feet padding on the carpeted floor as she headed over to her closet to find something clean to wear.

"By the blade! And you're not even bleeding!" Two-Bit practically shouted, his face blanching and his eyes bugging. Carmen turned and chuckled at the expression on his face.

"Boy, if I had a camera…" she muttered, still snickering. Two-Bit shut his mouth and gave her a long, hard stare.

"How did you do that?" he asked slowly. "That's not basic sorcery. That's almost black magic." Through learning wizardry, Two-Bit had also learned quite a bit about the other types of magic circulating the world.

Carmen turned back to her closet and remained silent. "Carmen," Two-Bit said sharply. Carmen ignored him, but the only purpose that served was to irritate Two-Bit into using his best weapon against her.

"Carmen, I order you to tell me—" Two-Bit began, but that was as far as he got. Carmen had whipped around and held the switchblade, which she was still gripping, to Two-Bit's throat.

"Do you want to finish that sentence?" she asked softly, her face a blank mask. Two-Bit swallowed. "No," he finally managed, hoping he didn't look half as afraid as he felt.

More than frightened, he was amazed at Carmen's daring, and more curious than ever about what she wasn't telling him.

Carmen handed the switchblade back to him, and he closed it and slid it safely into his back pocket. Awkward silence stretched across one minute before Carmen spoke.

"I'm sorry, Two-Bit," she said quietly. "I wish I could tell you, I really do. But I've been ordered to kill anyone who ever finds out."

Two-Bit opened his mouth to say, _by whom?_ But he had a feeling that question was off limits too. Instead he said, "Thanks. For not killing me."

Carmen rolled her eyes and threw a pair of socks at him, missing. "Out," she ordered. Two-Bit pretended to be hurt. "What, you want me to go home?"

"No, but there is no way I'm getting dressed with you in the room. _Out!"_ Somehow, Two-Bit had lost control of his legs, which were moving forward and steering him out of the room.

"Hey! What gives?" Two-Bit yelped, clutching the doorframe. But he had somehow lost control of his hands too, which released their grip on the doorframe. He found himself in the hallway, watching Carmen's door slam shut and hearing the lock turn. Only then did he regain control of his limbs.

_Man, she's no fun at all,_ he groused to himself. He sighed and started downstairs, the steps creaking. _Hmmm. She has to have something to eat around here. Maybe there's something to watch on TV too._

Two-Bit found some chips in the pantry and brought them to the front room, where the sad, small TV rested. It was obvious from the dust gathering on it that nobody ever watched it.

Two-Bit switched it on and channel surfed, trying to find something decent to watch. Finally he found a channel he liked.

"Ooh, Mickey Mouse!"

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Russell screamed in agony as he burned. His skin was scorched and he could smell burning hair. All he could see was red, fiery red flames that mocked him.

_Make it stop,_ he thought desperately. _Make it STOP!_

He gasped in shock as he was doused with a jet of cold water. The fire died down, and when the smoke cleared, Russell regained his vision. A moment later, he wished he hadn't.

Mordred was standing in front of him, wand drawn and wearing a hard expression. He was a tall, thin, intimidating man, with eyes that were like pieces of flint, and a long, sharp nose.

"Explain yourself," he snarled at his cowering apprentice. Russell swallowed hard and reluctantly told the truth.

"I can't remember, sir," he muttered. To his astonishment, Mordred lowered his wand and said, "That will do."

"Sir?" Russell said, amazed that he had gotten off so easily.

"That is a powerful forgetting spell," Mordred said quietly. "I had underestimated the boy's power."

Russell strained his memory, trying to remember. Mordred chuckled cruelly. "Don't hurt yourself, Russell. The spell is bound very tightly. I suppose since you remember me, you will remember my daughter, Carmen?"

Russell nodded slowly. _I remember her. And I think she has something to do with this…thing I have to remember._

"Indeed, she does," Mordred said coolly. "Well done, Russell." Russell stared at him. _How did he know what I was thinking?_

"Sorcery, my foolish apprentice," Mordred said triumphantly. "Only the powers of sorcery could enable me to read your thoughts."

"Sorcery?" Russell blurted out. "But you're a wizard!"

"Indeed," Mordred said softly. "Indeed." Russell opened his mouth, but shut it. He had just recalled exactly how his master had come about his means of sorcery, and it was best that he keep his mouth shut or else risk losing his lunch.

"Wise choice, my boy," Mordred said. Russell fumed silently. He hated that his master could read his thoughts.

"Enough chit chat," Mordred said firmly, whirling around. "We have to find some way of releasing that memory spell. I must know what happened."

"I thought you had your cauldron to tell you that," Russell said quickly. He had experienced Mordred's magic before, and, regardless if it was for black magic or the rare good deed, it was always painful.

"Indeed," Mordred said, looking defeated. "I did, but the magic ran out before your encounter ended."

_What encounter?_ Russell thought, but said, "Master, how can your wizardry run out? You're a wizard!"

"The magic in that cauldron, to see an event as it happens, is not wizardry, idiot! It is fairy magic!" Mordred shouted in frustration. "It was the last of the magic I took from Twyla sixteen years ago."

"But…Master…" Russell stammered nervously. His brain screamed furiously at his mouth to shut up, but he had to know. "Didn't you take sorcery from Carmen just that long ago?"

"No, you fool. That was merely five years ago, although you are correct in saying that it ought to have run out by now. No, no, a sorcerer's or sorceress' magic is special, and can be applied to any type of magic. Especially my dear daughter's. The power I took from her will always be useable to me, because of our blood bond."

"Oh," was all Russell could think to say. His mind felt foggy and his head hurt. The spell had him tight in its grasp, and it was not letting go.

"Right. So we'll just fix that…" Mordred muttered to himself. He paced back and forth, waving his wand.

Golden, shimmering diagrams and words appeared in front of him occasionally, lingering until the wizard walked on, and then popping and dying like fireworks.

Finally the wizard turned to Russell, a triumphant smile on his face. "I suppose you remember that we watched together as my daughter gave some of her power to that mortal?" Russell nodded. "Yes, master."

"Yes. So whatever spell he cast, should be undoable by _her_ magic." Russell nodded again. "I suppose," he said reluctantly.

"Well, then!" Mordred exclaimed. "What are we waiting for? Let's get started!"

Russell swallowed hard. More than even his master's magic, he feared the power of Carmen's.

It wasn't that she was more powerful; Russell had yet to find a magical being more powerful than his master. She was more creative and her spells came full force, with strong, true emotion behind it. Mordred would shove you off a cliff into a pit of sharks and alligators and think nothing of it. Carmen would only do it if she really hated you.

Russell closed his eyes, bracing himself for the explosion that was sure to occur.

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Ending it here. It's too long anyway. Whaddya think? Please review? (I said please!—I need to work on the whole "nice" thing, according to parents)


	7. Silver Arabic Letters

Chapter Seven: Silver Arabic Letters

Two-Bit's eyes were glazed over and his mouth hung slightly open as he stared mindlessly at the television. He wasn't paying attention to much of anything, and that was why he didn't hear Carmen sneaking up behind him.

She crept silently across the room, with absolutely no intention of using sorcery. _I'll try this the mortal way,_ she thought. _It'll be an experience. _

It certainly was an experience. Approximately two feet from the back of Two-Bit's head, Carmen brought her hands down heavily on Two-Bit's shoulders.

He leapt in shock and whirled around, relaxing when he saw Carmen grinned widely. "Oh. It's you," he commented.

"Yeah, and you were expecting maybe the Tooth Fairy?" Carmen suggested. Two-Bit snickered. "Yeah, where's my quarter?" he joked.

"Where's your tooth?" Carmen shot back. Two-Bit flashed his pearly whites at her. "I'll give you all of them for a hundred."

Carmen shoved him away and hoisted herself over the back of the couch, landing neatly next to Two-Bit. "Hah. Next thing you'll be telling me the tooth fairy's real," Two-Bit muttered more to himself than Carmen as he searched for the remote.

Carmen grabbed the remote just as Two-Bit caught sight of it and switched off the television. "It's no joke. The Tooth Fairy's a very hardworking woman," Carmen said seriously. "I'll never figure out how she does it."

_Things never get boring with Carmen around,_ Two-Bit mused. He pulled his switchblade from his back pocket and flipped it open.

"So? Can we get started? Huh? Can we? Can we? Can we?" he begged like a little kid asking for candy.

Carmen somehow managed to choke out between her laughter, "Yes. Sure." Two-Bit cheered.

There was a noise from the door. Two-Bit leaned over to get a better look at the door. "Hey, someone just put something through the slot."

Carmen stopped laughing and leaned over to look, muttering, "That's weird. Normally they just put it in the mailbox…" she trailed off, eyes wide with horror.

"What? What is it?" Two-Bit demanded. Carmen barely heard him through the roaring in her ears.

There was a violet envelope on the floor where it had come in the mail slot. Carmen tried to speak, but her throat was too dry. She cleared it and tried again, but she had forgotten what she had wanted to say.

Two-Bit had already gotten off the couch and headed to the door to pick up the envelope. He crouched on the floor and turned it over. On the front, in flagrant silver letters, the names: Carmen and Azure.

Two-Bit frowned. "Azure?" he repeated, his brow wrinkling. "My mother's first name. No, don't open it!" Carmen added a second too late.

There was a sound like a volcano eruption. When the smoke cleared, Carmen bit back a laugh at Two-Bit's charred face and his hair sticking up straight. He coughed slightly, and a puff of smoke escaped from his mouth.

Carmen gestured gently with her hand, and Two-Bit winced as things unseen and unheard flitted up to him and began scrubbing his face clean.

Two-Bit, his face clean, although pink from the scrubbing, and his hair still standing on end, turned back to the envelope. "What," he demanded, "was that?"

"I told you not to open it," Carmen sighed. Two-Bit made a face at her and repeated his question.

"It's a warning. From my father," she explained wearily. "He sends those occasionally. You know, kind of like a threatening phone call. He never does anything about it though. Not unless he could find us…"

Two-Bit was already unfolding it. His eyebrows knitted as he turned it over and over, unable to read it. "What does this say?"

"Here, let me see," Carmen said, walking over. Two-Bit handed her the letter, and she squinted at the tiny silver print on the purple paper.

"Oh. It's written in Arabic," she said quietly. "Arabic?" Two-Bit repeated in disbelief. "Can you read it?"

"Yeah. It's kind of weird…Everyone in Lilanazar speaks English, but we all write in Arabic. It says, 'Beware, I'm coming to get you one of these days,' and more of the same garbage. Hang on…"

Her eyes skimmed the page, and she turned it over. "Hah. I knew it. 'P.S. Consider your mortal friend's spell broken. By the time you receive this letter, it will be.'"

Carmen tore the letter in half and looked up at Two-Bit. "I don't know how he'll do it," she said quietly. "But he'll have a hell of a time, is all I can say."

Two-Bit didn't grin. "But will he have broken it?" he asked worriedly. Carmen cast her eyes down. "I don't know," she admitted. "But if he has, he'll be coming soon. We'll have to be prepared."

She looked up at him, eyes intense and questioning. "You can leave if you want to. You don't have to help us."

_Leave a blonde damsel in distress? I think not. It's the chivalrous Sir Two-Bit to the rescue!_

"No way. You made me a wizard, so I'm going to help you," Two-Bit assured her. Carmen bit back a laugh at his gallantry, especially after those thoughts of his she had just heard.

"Thanks, Two-Bit. But to fight, you have to be ready. So shall we get started?" she suggested, the mischievous glint back in her eyes.

Two-Bit grinned. _Now that's what I'm talking about!_

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Russell tried his best not to scream as the white-hot sorcery flew from the evil wizard's fingertips and ran its course through his veins.

_I would have been better off in hell,_ he thought painfully. Slowly but surely, the magic loosened its grip on his brain and his memory came flying back. He could have sworn he saw sparks for a moment and heard the wind whistle as the mortal wizard's magic escaped through the window.

"Blast. Lost the magic," Mordred muttered. Russell's knees gave way and he sunk to the floor. "Where are they, boy?"

Russell struggled against his body's will to pass out. "O-out-outside. Outside the…the soda shop…Tulsa."

That having been said, Russell succumbed gladly to the blackness approaching fast.

He gasped and his eyes flew open as a jet of cold water hit him in the face. "What the—?" he sputtered, catching himself as he caught sight of his master glaring at him, wand drawn.

"Tulsa, Oklahoma?" Mordred demanded upon realizing Russell had regained consciousness. Russell nodded, blinking the water out of his eyes and shaking his head like a wet dog.

"Well, well, _well,"_ Mordred said deviously, more to himself than anyone else. "Where exactly in Tulsa, boy?"

"Can't…don't remember. Not at her house…not by anyone's house. On the street. She was walking…I ran into her," Russell said vaguely. His head was throbbing, and it was a struggle just to stay conscious.

Mordred tried to keep his temper. "Which street?"

"I…don't know. It was in a bad neighborhood, though…the sidewalks were all cracked and the paint was peeling on everything."

Mordred snorted in disgust. "Idiot, they are always in a _bad neighborhood._ Financially, they have nothing!" He paced back and forth, fuming. "I must have their exact location, or else risk missing them completely!"

_Missing them?_ Russell wondered, but said nothing. "I mean, I am going to create a potion that will allow us to watch them closely and strategically plan our attack." Russell wished Mordred would stop treating his mind like a book, opened and flipped through at leisure.

Mordred was not finished with his ranting. "This time, I want to make sure my daughter is under my power, and I want her mother and that mortal dead." He said "mortal" as though it meant "scum of the earth."

Striding across the room, each step deliberate and echoing loudly in the large chamber, Mordred chose a book off the bookcase in the corner of the room and flung it at Russell. He doubled over as it sailed into his stomach.

"Look up Spell #72, Section 5.87, Category 4," Mordred commanded. Russell did as he was told, and, having done this enough times before to know what was coming next, began reading the text in a resigned monotone.

"'Boil water to the rim in thy cauldron. Place in thy cauldron five milligrams of essence of sage, eight ounces of powdered bat wing, seven grams of—'"

"Slow down, boy!" Mordred barked. "I can't keep up when you read so fast."

Russell obediently stopped until Mordred was caught up, and then continued at a slower pace.

_Carmen thinks she's the only one who _has_ to be obedient? Yeah, right. I'll get my sorry behind incinerated if I disobey Mordred._

"You're right there, my boy," Mordred said idly. _Jeez!_ Russell thought with disgust.

Half an hour passed, with Mordred mixing ingredients and letting the potion simmer. Finally, when turquoise steam began to gently rise from the cauldron, Mordred stood up and strode towards it.

"Come here, Russell, and together let us search for my daughter and the mortal. Perhaps, if we are lucky, we shall find them in that vast 'bad neighborhood'. I cannot do it as quickly as you. I am not a Finder, as you are."

Russell joined his master, bending over the cauldron to peer inside. He concentrated his Finding powers on the cauldron. The substance inside began to swirl ominously. Mordred was holding a slide rule over it, muttering to himself and turning it this was and that.

The blue smoke cleared, and, in the murky green liquid, Russell could clearly see Carmen. She was reading a wizard's manual rapidly, brows knitted and speaking aloud, although Russell couldn't hear a word she was saying.

"Ah…" Mordred said thoughtfully. "Perhaps she has received our threat, and has taken it seriously."

Russell sighed. "Why must you send those letters out every month, master?" he asked wearily. Russell despised those letters. He had lost many nights of sleep staying up, painstakingly writing out those tiny Arabic letters, while Mordred dictated.

Mordred would have written those letters himself, but he was unable. In Lilanazarian terms, he was illiterate.

"To keep them on their toes. They should know I haven't forgotten them," Mordred explained. It took all of Russell's willpower not to roll his eyes. He sometimes thought his master was half-crazed, though whether it was from power or obsession with finding Carmen, he didn't know.

Meanwhile, the scene changed inside the cauldron. Mordred looked as though he was arguing with himself.

"Hmmm," he said aloud. "If I add wormwood to get sound, the vision will turn blurry and black-and-white. If I don't, we see perfect picture but hear nothing."

Watching the silent movie before them, Mordred muttered, "Mat as well," and painstakingly measured out seven perfect drops before adding it in.

Mordred and Russell bent over the cauldron to see the blurry and black-and-white scene play out before them, although with excellent sound effects.

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Carmen ducked just in time. Two-Bit's left sneaker sailed over her head and hit the wall behind her.

Two-Bit stood in the center of the room, switchblade in hand and sock-footed. "Oops," he said sheepishly.

Carmen threw his shoes back at him. "Again," she commanded. "You're focusing too much on moving the actual object, and you're losing control. You're getting too enthusiastic. Concentrate more on the actual wand movement, all right?"

Two-Bit nodded. He focused on moving his left shoe, and carefully moved his wand in the complicated pattern the manual had diagrammed.

He felt the shoe slipping out of his control again as it rose gently into the air, and he stopped focusing on that and concentrated on his switchblade. The shoe dropped to the floor.

His shoulders sagged. "I'll never get this," he lamented. "Why couldn't I have been, like, a hypnotist or something?"

"Because a wizard's the best thing you can be when you're not born with natural powers of hypnotism or whatever. Sorcerers and wizards are born with raw power and can do anything with it. Hypnotists are limited to hypnotism," Carmen explained.

"Well, if I wasn't a wizard, what would I be?" Two-Bit asked, now curious. "A magician. You'd probably end up doing cheap card tricks in a pool hall somewhere," Carmen said.

"But wizardry is all…math! Geometry and all that," Two-Bit sulked. "Oh, do shut up!" Carmen said exasperatedly.

The door slammed and Carmen's mother entered with her arms full of groceries. "Two-Bit? Here again?"

"What, you don't like my company?" Two-Bit pretended to be hurt. Azure shoved her groceries into Carmen's arms, saying, "Put these away for me. And save the bags."

Carmen immediately did so, though rather hastily. When she bounded back into the room, Two-Bit was levitating the shoe again. She and Azure both ducked simultaneously.

Carmen was the first to cautiously raise her head when nothing happened. "Two-Bit, you've done it!"

"By George, I think I've got it!" Two-Bit exclaimed happily. He waved his wand in a figure eight, and the shoe followed suit.

He let the shoe drop and bent over to tug it back onto his foot. "Wahoo!" he cheered.

"All right!" Carmen said, slapping him a high-five. She picked up the wizarding manual that was lying open on the table.

"All right. Let's move on," she said. Two-Bit groaned and flopped on the floor. "Carmen, I'm beat. It's your turn."

"All right, then," Carmen said. "Mom, where's the sorcery books?" Azure snapped her fingers twice, and they came sliding, down the banister and on the floor, resting at Carmen's feet.

"Okay. Let's get started," Carmen said, flipping the book open to where she had left off.

Minutes later, there was an explosion that shook the whole house. It was fortunate that Azure and Carmen had enchanted the house to appear perfectly normal to anyone outside it, regardless of what was going on inside.

Two-Bit and Azure were in shock. Carmen stood in the center of it all, grinning sheepishly. "Oops?" she ventured.

Two-Bit shook his head sadly. "And I thought I was bad at wizardry."

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So? Whaddya think? Good? Bad? Awful? Kindly review and tell me what you think.

Many thanks to my one faithful reviewer. You know who you are. : )


	8. Bring It On

Chapter Eight: Bring It On

Azure waved a hand and almost immediately everything flew back into place, an encyclopedia barely grazing Two-Bit's nose.

Carmen sheepishly scratched the back of her neck. "It was an accident," she protested. Two-Bit smothered a laugh and Azure maintained a dignified silence.

_She may be cute, but she's also crazy, _Two-Bit thought. _Cute, crazy, and sometimes careless. C, c, and c. Just like her name!_

"_I suppose you think you're being awfully clever,"_ Carmen's voice echoed in his head. Two-Bit jumped. It had been a while since she had last done that. He turned to see her glaring at him. He shrugged, unabashed. She shouldn't have been reading his thoughts.

Azure was flipping idly through the sorcery book. "We have to find a good spell for you to learn," she said absently. "Who knows when Mordred and Russell will show up?"

Carmen gasped audibly and Azure turned around. Her jaw dropped and she mouthed a few words, but made no sound.

It was only then that Two-Bit turned to see what was causing their odd reactions. When he did turn, he had a very similar reaction.

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Mordred stepped back from the cauldron, laughing long and loud. It was a terrible sound that echoed off the stone walls of the castle and made Russell want to cover his ears.

"They are pathetic!" Mordred chuckled cruelly. "They are not nearly as prepared as I thought they would be."

Without warning, he grabbed a thick leather bound book off the table and flung it at Russell, who caught it in his stomach with a grunt.

"Find the spell to transport us, boy," Mordred commanded. "I'll start the magic circle."

While Mordred muttered some words under his breath and drew a golden circle that was about ten feet in diameter with his wand, Russell flipped through the book. About a thousand pages in, he found the spell.

"About time," Mordred said scathingly, who had been waiting impatiently. "Come now, we haven't much time."

Russell swallowed hard. He hated transportation spells, being squeamish. Squeamish, cowardly, and bloody stupid, as Carmen used to call him, he recalled angrily.

"Recite the spell, boy," Mordred ordered, snapping him out of his stroll down memory lane. Russell hastened to comply.

"_Dhin, dhanak a dhin a dhin, dhin, tha…"_ Russell chanted, slowly and in an oddly low-pitched voice.

The air around them stirred. The room spun and mutated, twisting. Everything except Russell and Mordred, safe inside the circle.

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They appeared several seconds later in Carmen and Azure's living room with a small pop.

It was so soft that Carmen was the only one who heard it. She turned and gasped loudly. Mordred smirked at her and Russell grinned wickedly.

Azure and Two-Bit turned. They had pretty much the same reactions. "Mordred," Azure breathed. "What are you doing here?"

Mordred seemed amused. "I found you," he said, sounding smug. "Thanks to Russell, my Finder."

Carmen glared daggers at Russell. "You're a sick S.O.B.," she snarled, unable to keep her voice from trembling with rage.

Russell smirked and lifted his hands with an expression that said, 'what can I say?' Carmen narrowed her eyes, and wished that she could kill him on the spot.

"All right," Two-Bit interjected. "Bring it on." Russell and Mordred exchanged glances, and then burst out laughing.

"You? A mortal?" Mordred choked out. "Don't make me laugh any harder." Two-Bit scowled indignantly and slouched, hooking his thumbs in his pockets out of habit. Looking tough didn't have any effect on those two, however.

"Like he said," Carmen said, her voice quiet and deadly. "Bring it on."

"Very well," Mordred sighed. "If you insist on declining from the formalities."

What followed was an explosion of magical power and unleashed mutual hate, the aftershocks of which would reverberate for days to come, including and especially in the mortal world.

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Short, but I have not the essence of time. Review, please.


	9. Finder's Spell

Chapter Nine: Finder's Spell

Mordred started off the fight with a spell that Azure ducked and reflected back at him with a conjured mirror.

Carmen, meanwhile, wasn't bothering with spells as she leapt at Russell. Her cry of rage turned into a panther's shriek as she transformed. Russell had just enough time to transform into a lion before she threw him to the ground.

Two-Bit just stood there stupidly for a minute. _Man, _he thought to himself. _I will never see a stranger sight._

Carmen and Russell were transforming back and forth, while Mordred and Azure were rocking the entire house with their spells.

Two-Bit seized the chance to jump in when Russell had Carmen pinned down, his claws ready to tear her throat open. He pulled out his switchblade and, reverting back to the fighting he had always known, threw it manually at Russell.

It acted as a boomerang, slashing Russell's face and flying smoothly back into his hand. Russell roared in rage, a roar that turned into a yell as he became human again.

With Russell distracted, Carmen flung him against the wall with a spell. He was knocked out and Carmen stood shakily, clutching her side.

"You okay?" Two-Bit demanded, running to her and prying her hand away. Her shirt front was torn and soaked with blood, as was her hand.

"He slashed me," she said, her voice trembling almost as badly as she was. "I'm losing blood, fast."

_Oh my god, what's that healing spell? _Two-Bit thought frantically. _Oh yeah…_

"Hold still!" he commanded. Carmen did so, yelping as he drew his switchblade once more across the gash in her side.

Her breathing grew steadier as the cut sealed itself with the magic of Two-Bit's wand. "Thanks," she said.

Russell was stirring in the corner. "Uh, oh," Carmen muttered. Two-Bit glanced over at him and felt like uttering that exact phrase.

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Russell had had enough. She had defeated him humiliatingly before; he wasn't going to let her do it again.

He remembered a spell older than time, ancient and so secret that not even Mordred knew it existed.

It was the Finder's Spell. It had been created by Russell's great-to-the-umpteenth-power grandfather thousands of years ago.

Now, it was a family secret, passed down through generations. As soon as one came of a certain age in Russell's family, they were entrusted with the secret of the Finder's Spell.

Russell could hear his mother's words echoing in his head.

"_You mustn't use the Spell for anything but self-protection! Russell, this Spell is our family history. It is a sacred but also dark and dangerous weapon. Please, promise me you will not use it against anyone. It is a fate too terrible to be true…"_

Because of dire warnings like this, the Spell had been in disuse for generations. _All the better for me,_ Russell had thought, knowing that magic builds up against a spell if one holds knowledge of it but never uses it.

Now, he was past rational thinking, blinded by his rage. _That promise can go to hell,_ he thought. He could feel the Spell consume him as he uttered the three terrible syllables that initiated it. His entire body was trembling with adrenaline and he let out a roar of rage and triumph.

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Mordred and Azure ceased fighting and gazed at Russell with horrified looks on their faces, Mordred only so for a moment before he remembered to be indignant.

"The Finder's Spell!" he exclaimed. "That boy never told me he knew that! We could have gained so much if he had only—"

"You wouldn't have been able to use it anyway," Azure interjected. Mordred turned to retaliate, but she didn't give him the chance.

"It's family magic. You'd have to be a blood relative. If you wanted to use it, you'd have to get Russell to do it for you. But you'd never allow that, would you," she added, smirking. "You'd never share the glory."

Mordred looked enraged for a moment before he remembered his practice of "borrowing" other creature's magic. He was nowhere near as powerful as Russell in this field, but combined with his wizardry and even a bit of Carmen's sorcery, it was enough.

He thoroughly enjoyed the look of disbelief and terror on Azure's face as he, too, transformed…

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"What's going on?" Two-Bit shouted to Carmen over the screeches of the—what were they? Dragons? Griffins? Chimaeras? He had never seen anything like them in any of his books.

"It's the Finder's Spell!" Carmen shrieked. Two-Bit didn't think she had ever looked so terrified.

"The what?" Two-Bit yelled back, but his words were drowned out by what happened next.

"Carmen," Russell rasped. "Feel my wrath!" Russell flapped his monstrous, bat-like wings and raised a terrible storm, uttering at the same time words Two-Bit did not understand.

Carmen fell to her knees. Russell bellowed at her once more, and she stood up and walked reluctantly over to him. _Too reluctantly,_ Two-Bit realized. _He's giving her orders, and she _has_ to follow them!_

Two-Bit watched helplessly in horror as Russell took Carmen's hands and uttered words that made them glow red with power. Carmen's eyes grew wide and she shook her head, pleading with Russell.

Russell merely laughed cruelly. It sickened Two-Bit, making his stomach twist. It twisted further and repeated the sensation Two-Bit got when he was on a roller coaster as Russell pointed a talon at him and gave Carmen another order, one that even Two-Bit understood:

"Kill him."

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I'm going to leave you hanging, because I can. Don't be alarmed, I'll update soon enough…


	10. Free At Last

Chapter Ten: Free At Last

Carmen felt Russell's heinous command clamp on to her, turning her into a puppet. _No!_ She thought, resisting. _I can't…I won't do this!_

The power of the Finder's Spell throbbed in her hands. _I could turn it against him,_ Carmen thought with sudden inspiration. _I could…_

Her thoughts were cut off by Russell's laughter. "Nice try," he rasped, amused. "You can't turn my own power against me! Now quit stalling and KILL THE MORTAL!"

Carmen tried to stop her legs from propelling her forward to where Two-Bit was still standing. "Why are you standing there? MOVE!" she shrieked at him.

"I would if I could!" Two-Bit yelled. "He cast a spell and I'm turning into a statue!" It was only then that Carmen noticed that his feet were glowing fiery like the flames of a fire, and the soles of Two-Bit's sneakers were melting.

She watched as Two-Bit cast every spell he could remember with his switchblade wand, and, it seemed to Carmen, even made some up on the spot. But Russell's grip held fast. Two-Bit was trapped.

Carmen, meanwhile, was struggling with herself. The red-hot murder scalded her fingertips, itching to get out, but Carmen wouldn't let them. She had that much control left.

She was sweating with the effort of keeping control. Bright lights flashed before her eyes and she couldn't breathe. She was about to pass out, she knew. She sank to her knees, head pounding and chest aching from the constant struggle. She wanted so badly to be able to give in, but she couldn't. She wouldn't.

An idea hit her. She couldn't very well kill Two-Bit if she wasn't conscious to do it. She summoned what little energy she had left to whisper the idea to his thoughts. As she entered his mind, she found that he had been entertaining the same notion.

She lifted her head slightly. He was staring intensely at her. She nodded in agreement. Two-Bit raised his switchblade…

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Russell roared and the switchblade shattered in Two-Bit's hand. He groaned aloud. Russell must have gained enough power to read their thoughts.

"Yes, mortal, I have," Russell snarled. "Carmen! Stop struggling!" he roared.

From her spot on the floor, Carmen slumped forward immediately. "Get up," Russell commanded coldly. Carmen did so.

It seemed to Two-Bit that she was in a trance of some sort. Like her body was there, but she really wasn't.

What happened next happened so fast and was so incredibly unbelievable that Two-Bit would wonder for years to come what really happened.

Carmen walked towards him perfectly normally and stood just inches from his face. _She's like a zombie,_ Two-Bit thought. She wasn't breathing, or moving, or blinking. She had the deadest expression Two-Bit had ever seen.

"Kill him already," Russell ordered impatiently. A wave of panic washed over Two-Bit. Carmen raised her hands, red with evil power…

A gust of wind blew rapidly through. It was like a tornado; unanticipated, unwanted, ripping up everything in sight, uncaring about the damage it left behind. Just as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

Carmen's eyes closed and she collapsed with a soft sigh. Two-Bit caught her reflexively before she hit the ground. The redness had faded from her hands. She seemed to be in a deep, peaceful sleep.

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Carmen had let go of herself when Two-Bit's wand shattered. She had let go of everything and become free.

She was detached, floating miles above anything else. For a moment she let herself drift…

Then all the presently occurring events came back to her in one fell swoop. _Okay, good feelings gone,_ she thought remorsefully. But at least now she had the power to do what she had to.

Right now, she knew, her body was a puppet in Russell's control. She was, essentially, a golem, a creature made from the earth that has no mind of its own, who does whatever its master commands.

Carmen raised a storm of her rage. Rage at never being truly free, at Mordred for using her for his evil, at Twyla for being such a stupid fairy, at Russell for making her do this to Two-Bit, but mostly to herself, for having taken this all lying down like a doormat, when the answer was so obvious. It had been right in front of her all along.

She set the storm loose. It tore through the house, tearing up everything. In the chaos, she whispered to herself the spell she had known all along.

The curse lifted off her, taking with it her servitude and returning her liberty. Carmen settled in her body and collapsed, exhausted. _Free at last,_ were her final thoughts before succumbing to sleep. _Free at last._

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"What? No!" Mordred shouted. He was the first to figure out what had happened. He could feel Carmen's sorcery, taken by force of the curse, unwrapping itself from his grasp and slipping away, back to its rightful owner.

Azure was the next to figure it out. Tears of joy rolled down her cheeks. "Yes," she whispered. "I knew you could do it, baby."

Mordred now rounded on her, face contorted with rage. "You!" he spat. "You knew all along, didn't you! You knew the solution all along, but you could never tell her directly because she had to break the curse herself!"

Mordred was very pleased with himself for having figured out how Carmen had broken the curse, and enraged that she had broken the curse and that Azure had been helping her all along.

"It was the lullaby, wasn't it?" he said quietly and dangerously. "That lullaby you used to sing to her…that was the solution all along, wasn't it." His rage only doubled when Azure pressed her lips together and said nothing.

"You shall pay for this!" he bellowed, turning all his power on her. "Help me, boy! She is the reason my daughter has defeated you again!"

Russell seemed to consider Mordred's words for a moment. Then he, too, began focusing his energy on Azure.

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"No!" Two-Bit shouted, struggling in vain against the hold on his feet. Why wasn't she fighting back? _Oh, if only I had my switchblade,_ he thought viciously.

He watched helplessly as the evil wizard and his apprentice drained their power on Azure, who collapsed and lay still.

The Finder's Spell having been exhausted of what magic it held, Russell and Mordred were human again. _Being human doesn't make them any better looking, though,_ Two-Bit thought.

"Our work here is done. We are victorious," Mordred said disdainfully. "Come, Russell." With that, he vanished.

Russell gave Two-Bit one last wicked grin and vanished as well. Two-Bit wished he could wring Russell's neck.

When Russell vanished, Two-Bit's feet were mobile again and he promptly fell forward.

"Owwww! Watch it!" someone complained.

"Sorry," Two-Bit apologized automatically. _Wait a minute,_ he thought. _I know that voice…_

"Carmen?" he exclaimed, standing up in a hurry and holding out a hand to help her up.

"What happened?" she asked carefully, looking around. "Where did Mordred and Russell go?"

"They vanished," Two-Bit said heavily. "They're gone."

But Carmen wasn't listening anymore. "Where's Mom?" she asked, looking around. Then she spotted Azure, crumpled on the floor in a heap.

"Mom," she said, her voice already breaking. She ran over and kneeled over, taking her mother's hand in her own. "Mom, please get up. Please, get up."

It broke Two-Bit's heart to see this. Swallowing hard, he turned and walked outside into the chill of night. The sun had set. He knew Carmen would join him when she was ready.

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"Mom," Carmen whispered, her voice cracking from the effort not to cry. "Mom, answer me," she pleaded.

But there was no answer. There was only the sound of the wind rushing through the trees outside, of cars zooming past, of someone's wind chimes jingling. And, above all, the silence of death was deafening.

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	11. Exactly The Same Situation

Chapter Eleven: Exactly The Same Situation

Two-Bit sat down on the front steps. He tried humming to himself to drown out the faint sounds of Carmen sobbing inside.

He waited for what seemed like hours. He wondered if he should step inside and make sure she was all right.

He was about to stand up and do so when Carmen stepped outside. "You okay?" Two-Bit asked softly. Carmen nodded, sitting down next to him.

They sat in silence. Carmen appeared to be deep in thought, but Two-Bit was a different story. He was like a four-year-old, fidgeting all over the place. He did not take kindly to boredom.

He couldn't take it anymore. He had to break the silence. "So," he started, and then immediately wished he hadn't. It was too loud, too uncalled for, even though it broke the silence.

"He can't get away with this," Carmen said softly. Two-Bit turned to her. She was wearing an expression that he had only ever seen before on Dallas Winston.

"What?" he said, not believing his ears.

"He can't get away with this," Carmen repeated. "I won't let him. He can't murder my mother and expect me not to do anything about it."

Two-Bit sat in stunned silence. Carmen must have sensed his shock, because she turned to him, saying, "You don't have to help me. I'll do it alone. But I have to do it." She turned back to staring fiercely at the horizon, where dawn was breaking.

"Carmen," Two-Bit said hoarsely. "You can't do this." He wouldn't let her. It was all a cycle. They hurt her, she hurt them, and they hurt her again. When was it going to end? Who could bear to live like that?

_We do,_ Two-Bit realized with a start. _Socs versus Greasers. It's exactly the same. Well, I'm going to stop it here. I'm not going to let Carmen die._

"I appreciate your sentimentality," Carmen said quietly, "but it's not going to stop me." Two-Bit cursed inwardly as he realized she had been reading his mind again.

"Carmen, you're not going to do this," Two-Bit said loudly. He would stop her if it was the last thing he did.

"Yes, I am, and you can't stop me," Carmen retorted.

"Yes, I can!" Two-Bit shouted. He then employed the one weapon he had against Carmen. "I order you not to!" he announced triumphantly.

Carmen burst into peals of laughter. "That won't work anymore," she said giddily. "That won't work anymore."

"Whaddya mean it won't work?" Two-Bit demanded. He was currently walking the thin line between concern and insanity.

Carmen grinned at the approaching sun. "I'm free. Go ahead, say something. Order me to do something," she challenged.

"Uh, do a cartwheel," Two-Bit said off the top of his head.

"No way!" Carmen yelled. "I don't have to!"

Two-Bit's jaw dropped. She really was free. "Carmen, that's great!" he exclaimed. He stood up, taking her hand and pulling her up as well.

"Yeah," she said, her grin fading. "You don't have to help me anymore. You did only promise to help me until I broke the curse."

Two-Bit nodded. Words seemed to have escaped him. Was she saying what he thought she was?

"You have your wizardry books and everything. You can teach yourself. Oh, here's your wand," she added, producing it from her pocket.

Two-Bit clicked it open. It was good as new, shiny and razor-sharp as the day he had shoplifted it. "Thanks. You know, for fixing it," he said awkwardly.

"No problem. So, I guess this is goodbye," Carmen said. "It was nice knowing you."

"No," Two-Bit said. Carmen raised her eyebrows. _I can't believe I'm doing this,_ Two-Bit thought.

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Carmen was genuinely shocked. This was the last thing she had expected. Two-Bit had fulfilled his part of the bargain. After all she had put him through, was he saying what she thought he was?

"If I let you go off to let you get revenge on your own," Two-Bit admitted heavily. "I'd never be able to forgive myself."

Carmen couldn't stop a large, ridiculous smile from spreading across her face. _He cares,_ she realized. _He wasn't just doing this because I made him a wizard._

"I'm starving," Two-Bit said suddenly. Carmen rolled her eyes. When was he ever not hungry?

"Okay," she conceded. "Let's go get breakfast. But first let's clean this mess up," she said, indicating the debris inside that had once been the contents of a house.

Two-Bit groaned. "That's gonna take all day!"

"Excuse me? Are you a wizard or not?" Carmen snapped. Two-Bit grinned sheepishly. "Oh, yeah," he said.

Together, they put the house back together in a matter of seconds. Carmen was glad she had thought to take care of her mother's body before she had come out.

Two-Bit hadn't asked about it, and she hadn't told him. She wondered briefly if Two-Bit, by not asking, was merely being tactful or had just forgotten.

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Russell stirred the cauldron half-heartedly. His arms were aching from performing the repetitive task for hours. He was already sore from the previous night's activities.

Mordred was in a terrible mood. Russell couldn't see why. He had been victorious, killed Azure and left Carmen and the mortal shattered from the defeat. What more did he want?

"Curses! Blast!" Mordred was bellowing. His shouting was echoed back, bouncing off the stone walls. "The curse is broken! That was the only chance of my plan to work!"

Russell started. _Carmen's curse is broken? _He thought in amazement. _No wonder Mordred's so mad. _

"Stir faster, boy," Mordred ordered disdainfully. "She will be coming to avenge her dear mother. And then," he said with a cackle. "Then we shall truly be victorious!"

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Uh oh. Anyway, kindly review now that you have read…next chapter will hopefully be up soon. But only if you review.


	12. HandMeDowns

Chapter Twelve: Hand-Me-Downs

Two-Bit swallowed and noticed Carmen gaping at him, her mouth hanging slightly open. "What?" he said.

"How can you eat like that?" Carmen exploded. "You practically _inhaled_ that whole stack of pancakes!"

"I'm hungry," Two-Bit said defensively. He noticed Carmen's untouched plate. "You going to eat that or let it sit there and look pretty?"

Carmen pushed the plate across the table at him. Two-Bit raised an eyebrow. "You didn't eat anything. Come on," he said enticingly, spearing a waffle and waving it under her nose. "You know you want it…"

Carmen shook her head. "I'm not hungry," she said to the table in a low voice.

Two-Bit remembered how Ponyboy had barely been able to eat for the first few weeks after Johnny and Dally had died. Heck, even he hadn't been himself.

"You have to eat something," he insisted. "You have to keep your strength up."

She shook her head, not looking up. "Come on," Two-Bit coaxed. "For me?"

Carmen looked up at him fiercely but softened at his almost pleading grin. "All right," she surrendered. She took her plate back and struggled through one waffle before refusing to eat more.

_Oh well,_ Two-Bit thought. _She'll get over it in time. Anyway, I'm not complaining. More for me._

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Carmen felt like gagging. That evil syrup-dripping mess was a lump in her throat. She wouldn't have eaten anything at all, but Two-Bit had insisted.

While Two-Bit ate, she planned. How was she supposed to defeat Mordred? Her sorcery needed a lot of work, as did Two-Bit's wizardry.

At least this time the sorcery would be easier. Her mother's power had merged with her own. When Carmen had buried her mother, the sorceress's magic that had been Azure's came to Carmen.

It had come of its own free will, which told Carmen that her mother had always meant for it to be hers when she died. It was like a hand-me-down. Other daughters vied for jewelry and money. Daughters in Lilanazar dreamed of the day they would inherit their mother's magic, and a son his father's.

Carmen's thoughts turned to the time she had spent burying her mother. A sorceress's burial was one completely different from that of a mortal's. The magic folk didn't smother the undead with six feet of dirt.

They set them free. The body was the home to the soul, and once a body was dead the soul was trapped. Through an incantation created by ancient Egyptian wizards, the soul was set free to go on to the afterlife and the body disintegrated into ash, no longer having a purpose. She wondered what the afterlife was like. No living creature, magical or mortal, knew.

Carmen couldn't help feeling miserable. Who could blame her? But, she wasn't as downcast as she would have been if she didn't know that her mother's spirit was free at last.

And it didn't hurt that she was freed of her curse and sorcery was pumping through her veins like adrenaline, energizing her.

Two-Bit's voice cut into her thoughts like a knife through butter. "…Carmen?"

"What?" Carmen said. "Sorry, I was spacing."

Two-Bit looked irked. "I said, do you want to leave?"

"Oh. Yeah," Carmen said vaguely. Her mind was a thousand miles from Tulsa. Feeling a bit dazed, she followed Two-Bit out.

_Miserable isn't the right word for how I feel,_ Carmen thought. She didn't feel enraged, or depressed, or much of anything. She felt…detached. Almost as though she didn't know how she should feel anymore.

She considered chiding Two-Bit for purchasing a pack of cigarettes via five-finger discount, but decided against it. He wasn't going to put it back anyway, so why waste her breath?

"So," Two-Bit said, draping an arm casually around Carmen's shoulders. "Where to now?"

Carmen shrugged. They could've gone to the moon and she couldn't have cared less.

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Two-Bit took notice of Carmen's depression, but he wasn't worried. How could anyone blame her for being miserable? She had just lost her mother. Truthfully, she was amazed at how tough she was. If he lost his mother, he didn't know what he'd do.

_Holy crap,_ he realized with a start. _I'd have to get a job!_

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Carmen smother a laugh. He was torn between relief, because she was smiling and that was a sure sign that she was recovering, and annoyance because she was listening to his thoughts again.

"You shouldn't do that," he scolded. "It's very rude."

Carmen merely shrugged innocently and pushed his arm off her shoulders. "Maybe you shouldn't think so loud," she said cheekily.

Two-Bit rolled his eyes and said nothing for once. Up ahead, he spotted a familiar someone leaving the movie house. "Hey, Ponyboy!"

Ponyboy turned, bemused, and smiled at the sight of Two-Bit. He waited until Two-Bit had ambled up and then fell into step with him.

"So, how ya been, buddy? Haven't seen you for a while," Two-Bit said.

Ponyboy stared at him. "Two-Bit, I just saw you yesterday."

"So?"

The two of them chatted amicably, walking along the streets of Tulsa. "Hey, Two-Bit," Ponyboy said, turning to Carmen. "You gonna introduce me or not?"

"I'm Carmen," she said before Two-Bit could open his mouth. "Hi. I guess you're Ponyboy, right?"

"Yeah," Ponyboy said awkwardly. Two-Bit had never quite understood Ponyboy's shyness. What was there to be shy about?

Carmen and Ponyboy then got started talking about some book, and Two-Bit tuned out. That was another thing he had never understood. Reading. What was so special about it anyway?

Then again, there were a lot of things he didn't understand.

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"Russell!" Mordred bellowed.

Russell groaned and stirred. It was three o'clock in the morning. Mordred had kept him up till one-thirty a.m. So now what was he doing waking Russell up again only an hour-and-a-half later?

"Yes, master?" Russell said sleepily, opening the trapdoor and looking down at Mordred from the freezing attic where he slept.

"Get down here this instant," Mordred snapped. Russell did as he was told, hastily. Mordred had been in a permanent bad mood ever since the last encounter with Carmen.

"Look at this," Mordred ordered. Russell bent to look in the cauldron his master was pointing at. It was full of cold water.

"I see that, master. But wha—?" Russell's question turned into a garbled yelp of protest as Mordred grabbed the back of Russell's neck and dunked his face into the cauldron.

He let go a moment later. Russell came up sputtering, swearing and dripping wet with cold water. "What," he demanded when he managed to be coherent, "was that?"

"Well, you're awake now, aren't you?" Mordred said briskly. "Now. Pay attention. This has to be very precise or it will never work."

"What won't? _Master?"_ Russell added with forced politeness, managing somehow to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. He shook his head, spraying water droplets everywhere.

"Carmen is coming. But she now has her mother's power. Her having that power is now just as bad as having Azure around," he said, looking livid. "I don't want her to have that power. So, when she comes, we will take it from her."

Russell wasn't surprised. He had been expecting something of the sort. His master was probably the most predictable and least imaginative wizard this side of the Milky Way.

Mordred went on. "We are going to take _all_ her power. All of it. Including the power she gave to that mortal," he said with contempt. "And we shall leave her with nothing. She will be reduced to a mortal herself, or at most a magician's assistant in Last Vedas…"

"You mean Las Vegas," Russell corrected before he could stop himself.

"Whatever," snapped Mordred. "We will let her live. To live like that would be more punishment than dying."

Russell felt inclined to point out that she could just commit suicide and no one would be suspicious because more than a thousand teenage deaths a year resulted from suicide.

"Whatever," Mordred repeated. "In any case, she's not a problem anymore." He said it as though Carmen was a tiresome errand on a to-do list.

"So, boy," Mordred said. "I apologize. You can go back to sleep now. This just couldn't wait till morning."

"Why not?" Russell asked, then smacked himself mentally. His mouth seemed to know exactly what to say that could let him see Mordred's worst rage unleashed on him.

Mordred didn't answer him, but instead turned his back on him and disappeared into one of the many dungeons. The conversation was over.

_Does the guy ever sleep?_ Russell wondered before turning and traipsing back to his own tiny space at the top of the castle. It was a good thing he wasn't claustrophobic.

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Ending it here because...because. Because, because, because, because, because! Because of the wonderful things he does! Oh, we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz!

Ahem. Sorry, the movie's on TV in FIVE MINUTES. I love that movie! And that's also my pathetic reason for not writing more.


	13. Catharsis

Chapter Thirteen: Catharsis

"So, your favorite book is _Gone With the Wind?_" Carmen asked Ponyboy.

"Well, yeah," Ponyboy said. "What's yours?"

Carmen struggled for a plausible answer. "I like a lot of books," she said finally. How was she supposed to tell him that her favorite book was _Full Moon: The Memoirs of a Werewolf_?

"Stop it, stop it!" Two-Bit finally burst with frustration. "Is all you can talk about books? Can we do something else, maybe?"

Ponyboy shuffled his feet. Carmen stared at the cracks in the sidewalk. Two-Bit changed the subject rapidly and started telling them a long, wild story.

Carmen tuned him out. _Sometimes,_ she thought to herself,_ Two-Bit is just annoying._

They passed the DX and Ponyboy said he was going to stop inside to talk to his brother Sodapop.

"I think I'll go home," Carmen said quietly. Two-Bit stopped abruptly. "What? Why?" he demanded.

"I don't feel so well," Carmen lied. She had gotten pretty good at that. "I'm going to go lie down."

She felt terrible for lying and almost told the truth as Two-Bit looked disappointed. "Okay," he said finally. "Want me to walk you there?"

"It's okay," Carmen said. "I'll be fine. Really," she added as Two-Bit looked suspiciously at her.

She ran off hurriedly. She could feel Two-Bit's eyes on her still. She could hear a whisper of his mind: _I'll check up on her later._

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Two-Bit frowned after her. _I'll check up on her later,_ he thought. He turned and continued on his way.

He ambled easily down the streets. Nothing exciting happened during the day. All the fun of wild parties and getting drunk happened at night.

True, you could drink beer at any hour. But who gets drunk at noon, besides alcoholics? Two-Bit liked beer all right, but he wasn't dependant on it. He had seen what that could do to you at Johnny's house.

He spotted a Soc's car parked nearby. That gave him a mischievous idea. Checking to make sure no one was around to see him, Two-Bit flicked out his switchblade.

Checking again to make absolutely sure that no one was watching, Two-Bit uttered a spell under his breath and aimed his switchblade at it.

He could barely breathe for laughing hysterically as the shiny red Mustang started up by itself and cannoned down the road, crashing into the dumpster at the end of the street.

Chortling to himself, he sprinted away before anyone who had heard the noise could come running. He finished his laughing fit two blocks away. It was times like this that made being a wizard worth the trouble.

_Where to now?_ He wondered to himself. _So many places to wreak havoc, so little time._

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Carmen ran home as fast as her feet would carry her and locked the door behind her.

She closed all the curtains in the house, locked all the doors and turned off all the lights. In her room, she sat on the bed and closed her eyes.

In the semi-darkness, Carmen muttered a spell under her breath and the radio began to softly play. It wasn't music that could be heard on any station. It was strange and bittersweet, mournful and calming. It was the music of midnight dreams, when all consciousness is lost and anything can happen.

Carmen meditated quietly. She didn't know how long she sat there for, only that she was and peace surrounded her and filled her, blocking out everything else for a short time. Her mind stopped all conscious thought and the rational side gave in.

This was the way Carmen cleared her mind. Right now, her thoughts were jumbled and confusing. She needed this, this catharsis, to retain her sanity.

Silence reigned and nothing penetrated Carmen's nirvana, not her own thoughts, no magic of any sort. She was in her element, and as long as she remained that way, nothing could touch her.

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Sorry so short. Last update for a while: stupid finals.


	14. ComingOfAge

Chapter Fourteen: Coming-of-age

_Stupid Mondays,_ Two-Bit thought sullenly as he slouched in his seat at the back of the class.

Normally he didn't care either way if he was at school of out of school. It didn't matter, since he didn't do much of anything in either place.

But today, he would have given anything to be out of school. It seemed to him that wizardry was the only thing he was, or ever would be, serious about. He liked the power, the feeling that he could do something and that his life was worth living. He liked it so much it scared him.

Carmen trailed in with the last of the stragglers and sat down next to Two-Bit without a word or even a glance in his direction.

Two-Bit watched her throughout Trigonometry. She was focused, as usual, but he couldn't shake the feeling that she was avoiding him.

At the end of class, she was the first one out the door, Two-Bit close behind her. "Hey! Carmen! Hey!" he yelled.

She turned and looked mildly surprised to see him. She had dark circles under her eyes that made her look like a raccoon and contrasted unpleasantly with her fair skin. "Oh. Hello, Two-Bit," she said politely.

"Carmen," Two-Bit said impatiently. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

She grimaced at him. "What are you, my mother or something?" she snapped immediately, and then fell silent, as if just realizing what she had said.

"Sorry," she said, so quietly that Two-Bit barely caught her words. "I didn't mean to jump down your throat or anything."

The bell rang. Carmen glanced at the hall clock, groaned, and started sprinting down the hallway. "Talk to you later!" she shouted.

Two-Bit took his time getting to class and landed himself with double detention for being late and mouthing off to the teacher on top of it.

_Big deal,_ he thought to himself. All the rest of the day he couldn't concentrate on anything save cracking worthless jokes and worrying about Carmen. He had thought she would be okay, but, then again, he had thought the same thing about Ponyboy when Johnny and Dally had first died.

He could see the same pattern in himself: hiding the hurt and temporarily numbing the pain with corny wisecracks and fighting and anything else that let off steam.

_I'm changing,_ he realized with a start. He was different. Any other time he wouldn't have cared less or given it a second thought. And now, here he was worrying about the effects it would have on Carmen, a girl whom two weeks ago Two-Bit wouldn't have given a second thought once he figured out she wasn't like the other blondes in Tulsa.

Carmen was the key to it all. If it hadn't been for her, this wouldn't be happening. If it hadn't been for her, he wouldn't be in this mess with Mordred and wizards and sorcerers and everything else that confused him.

If it hadn't been for her, he wouldn't have magic powers. He wouldn't have a purpose in life. He wouldn't have this outlook on life. He would still be the same as he had been. He would never have known this girl who he was slowly falling in love with, even though he didn't realize it at that point in time.

He had everything to blame and thank Carmen for. His life was twisted, shaken, and turned upside down and it was all because of her.

It was because of her that the person he had been two weeks ago was gone. And as much as the old Two-Bit fought against the new one, he couldn't win. He was gone forever, never to return.

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Carmen knew she looked like her own evil twin, but she simply hadn't been able to sleep last night. She couldn't sleep with the feeling that she was all alone with nobody to help her if anything happened.

Her mother was gone. She was never coming back. She was free now, just like Carmen. But what was being free if you couldn't be with the one person you wanted to be free for?

It was her fault she was gone. It was all Carmen's fault. If only she had figured it out sooner, if only she hadn't dragged Two-Bit into it, if only she would have stopped to think for a minute.

But no. She just kept going and going without really knowing where she was going. And that, above all, was the reason that Carmen was free but her mother was gone and Mordred thought he had won.

Before Carmen had thought that becoming free was everything. But now that it had happened, it seemed like there was so much more to life than just freedom. It was what you did with that freedom that counted.

Carmen knew what she had to do with her freedom. Regardless or not if she had Two-Bit's help, she knew what she had to do.

Clouds of sadness gave way to fiery lashing whips of anger in Carmen's mind. Revenge. Mordred and Russell couldn't be victorious. Someone had to stop them, and it would be her.

That thought shook the battlements of courage and shot arrows at any doubt. Magic coursed hot through her veins, and it was the remembrance of whose magic it was mixing with her own that convinced her.

Yet even as she planned, Carmen couldn't quite get rid of the treacherous thought that asked her if she was really doing the right thing.

The truth was Carmen wasn't sure of what she was sure of anymore. The number of things she was completely sure about was giving way to the already vast and increasing number of things that she wasn't, and maybe never would be, sure about.

Before, she had been so sure about everything she did, confident that it would turn out all right. Now, she just didn't know anymore.

All she could do was look ahead, take a deep breath and dive right in, hoping she would land softly instead of in a pit of sharks.

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"RUSSELL!"

Russell groaned and rolled out of bed again. _Twice in one night!_ He thought disbelievingly. _Mordred must really be antsy._

"RUSSELL!" the shout came again. "Don't keep me waiting!"

Russell sighed and began the descent to the dungeon where no doubt Mordred would have some other unimaginative plan to destroy his daughter.

How wrong he was.

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Next chapter up in a week or so. Forgive the idiocy of this chapter, as my nerves are shot because of finals (give me a break—this determines my semester grade!).


	15. Flying Carpets

Chapter Fifteen: Flying Carpets

Russell knocked three times on the dungeon door and waited. "Come in!" Mordred boomed from within.

Russell entered cautiously and ducked for good measure as he stepped into the dingy room. He didn't want to get hit in the face by another bucketful of swamp water.

"Yes, master?" he said obediently.

"Stir this," Mordred ordered absently. He was preoccupied with a book entitled _Tryvcrts._

_Oh, brother,_ Russell thought with an inward groan. Tryvcrts were like vampire-werewolves, except they could change form at will and weren't allergic to sunlight or garlic.

If Mordred was planning on turning one of those on Carmen…he shuddered to think. He felt slightly reassured by the fact that they were wild and impossible to tame.

Russell stirred obediently while Mordred paced back and forth, his nose in the book and muttering to himself.

He peered into the murky depths of whatever it was he was stirring and immediately averted his gaze, repulsed.

The contents of the cauldron had the color and consistency of spinach but smelled like rotten eggs.

"What _is_ this, master?" Russell asked. Mordred muttered something unintelligible and Russell didn't press the matter. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

"Stop stirring," Mordred ordered presently, shutting the book. Russell stopped and pulled out the stirrer. His eyes widened with shock when he saw the part of the stirrer that had been in the brew was charred, practically burned away.

"Hmmm," Mordred said disapprovingly. He waved his wand and it vibrated violently for a moment in Russell's hands. When it stopped, it was good as new. Russell dropped it and massaged his hands, which were tingling unpleasantly.

"We are going to have to make a little trip, boy," Mordred said. "Or, rather, you are. This potion cannot work against her," Mordred said _her,_ meaning Carmen, with more contempt than Russell had imagined possible, "without some part of her. A strand of hair will do."

Russell swallowed hard. "Can't you just magic it over, master?" he asked, rather desperately.

Mordred gave him the evil eye. "If I could," he said haughtily, "do you think I would be asking you?"

He had a point.

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Two-Bit took his seat next to Carmen that afternoon at debate club. "Hey," he whispered to her. She smiled slightly at him. The dark circles she had had in the morning were gone.

Ms. Wilson took her place in the front of the class. "Okay, everybody, let's begin today's debate."

Two-Bit tuned out. He wondered why he was even in debate club. Oh yeah. He had signed up because he thought Carmen was hot. Well, they knew each other now, so why were they still in debate club?

He glanced over at Carmen. She was staring straight ahead innocently, but Two-Bit knew that look too well. He thought loudly, _You were listening in, weren't you?_

Carmen thought back, _Not my fault. I don't do this on purpose. Ever since I inherited my mother's magic I don't just listen in on people's thoughts. If they think really loud, like you, then I just hear them if they're close enough. It's like they're talking aloud. It actually gets quite annoying._

Two-Bit wondered if there was any way he could think softer. He tried it and looked at Carmen out of the corner of his eye. She shook her head ever so slightly.

They spent the rest of debate club doing that, instead of paying attention to the argument two Socs were having about the draft.

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Two-Bit walked Carmen home, like he did every afternoon, since they lived so near each other.

"You gonna be okay?" he asked quietly when they reached her doorstep.

"Yes, of course," she said unconvincingly. Two-Bit raised an eyebrow at her. She sighed.

"Two-Bit," she said. "I'll be fine. My mom's free." That last word hung in the air.

"Free?" Two-Bit echoed. "It's complicated," Carmen said. "I think there's a chapter on it in your book."

Two-Bit groaned. "Spare me," he moaned. Carmen laughed. "Reading isn't going to kill you."

"Yeah, but you explain it better," Two-Bit insisted like a four-year-old. Carmen took a deep breath and launched into an explanation.

"Oh," he said when she had finished. "So, really there's no point in grieving."

"No, not really," Carmen said. "I miss her, but at least I know she's all right and not smothered six feet under."

"Okay," Two-Bit said. That being said and done, they shuffled in uncomfortable silence on the steps for a minute or so.

"So," Two-Bit said. "So," Carmen said. It was awkward. Carmen stared up at the cerulean sky.

"Carmen," Two-Bit said suddenly. Carmen's gaze met his, and she was surprised to see the color of his eyes. Cerulean. Like the sky.

He was too close for comfort, and coming even closer. She could see her reflection in his eyes. He leaned in and kissed her.

Carmen spent the first couple of seconds figuring out what to do with her nose. After that, it seemed to come so naturally.

Beyond that, the sorcery in her intervened and suddenly Carmen's mind was teeming with everything Two-Bit had ever known. She wondered if he was feeling the same thing.

They broke apart and stared at each other in shock. "Did you—?" Carmen started. "Yeah," said Two-Bit, sounding bemused. "What was that all about?"

"I don't know," Carmen said truthfully. "It was like we _were_ each other for a second…I've never heard of anything like this happening before."

"Maybe it's because I share some of your magic," Two-Bit suggested. Carmen looked up at him. He was gazing back at her seriously.

"Yeah…maybe," Carmen said distractedly. "I just remembered…but maybe it's not…well, it could be…"

"Could you be any more vague?" Two-Bit commented, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Sorry," Carmen said hurriedly. "I have to go look up something. Want to come?"

"Sure…" Two-Bit followed her up into the attic. "What're we doing up here?" he asked. The ceiling was so low he had to stoop to keep from hitting his head. Carmen, on the other hand, could walk upright and barely brush her head against the ceiling.

"Here it is!" Carmen said triumphantly. "Voila!" She unrolled an old rug, sending dust everywhere.

Two-Bit sneezed. When the dust cleared, his eyes widened at the sight before him. It was a magnificent Persian rug. He hardly dared to believe it, but then again, anything was possible with Carmen.

"Come on," she said, sitting cross-legged on it. Two-Bit sat down cautiously and it rose several feet in the air.

"A flying carpet…" he said weakly. "Yeah," Carmen said. "Hold on." Two-Bit held on, and almost flew off anyway when it began zooming.

_I've got a bad feeling about this,_ Two-Bit thought. He shook off the feeling. _Probably just nervous. Anyone would be, on this death trap!_

He didn't know it then, but he would regret this later.

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More coming later.


	16. Seriously, Where Are We?

Chapter Sixteen: Seriously, Where Are We?

"Two-Bit?" Carmen said. "You can stop hanging on like your life depends on it." They were soaring smoothly now.

Two-Bit relaxed his grip on the carpet, but still hung on anyway. Carmen noticed this. "You're not going to fall off, even if you wanted to. See?"

Two-Bit let out a yell as Carmen flipped the carpet over and they were flying upside down. "Relax," Carmen commanded. "Look! I'm not holding on, I'm not falling." She snapped her fingers under Two-Bit's nose.

The carpet turned right side up and Two-Bit let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding in one long _whoosh._

"Don't," he said menacingly, though, to his chagrin, his voice still trembled a little, "ever do that again." Carmen shrugged ambiguously and Two-Bit fumed silently.

"Where are we going?" he asked to break the silence. "Lilanazar," Carmen replied calmly. "Yeah right," Two-Bit said. "Seriously, where?"

"I told you," Carmen said seriously, turning to him. "Lilanazar."

Two-Bit nearly exploded with excitement. "Really?" he exclaimed. "You mean it? This ain't some kind of joke?"

"I mean it," Carmen said. "We couldn't go there before because Mordred would have found us. But it's the only place I know to look."

They drifted on in silence. Two-Bit looked down. "Wow," he said in awe. "That ain't Tulsa, I can tell ya that."

"That's Chicago. We lived there once," Carmen remembered wistfully. "Right after we left Lilanazar."

But Two-Bit wasn't paying attention to that. "Glory," he said. "We're over Chicago and we haven't been flying ten minutes!"

Carmen shrugged. "We're going pretty fast. Mach 3." Two-Bit froze. "Mach 3?" he repeated in hushed tones. "You mean to tell me we're going three times the speed of sound?"

"Yeah," Carmen said. "Ain't there supposed to be a bang when the barrier breaks?" Two-Bit asked suspiciously. "You forget," Carmen said. "I'm a sorceress."

Two-Bit lay back and looked up. "Why's the sky dark?" he asked. "It ain't even five yet. Wait," he said before Carmen could even open her mouth. "Let me guess. We're flying above the earth's atmosphere, right?"

"If we're above the earth's atmosphere, why can we still see cities on earth, smarty?" Carmen said witheringly. "We're just in a different time zone now."

Two-Bit stuck his tongue out at her immaturely. "How much longer?" he asked presently. Carmen shrugged. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees. "Cold?" Two-Bit asked nonchalantly. Carmen shook her head. "Nah. Just thinking."

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Russell's Finder's senses were tingling. She was close by, he knew. But _where?_ And even if he did find her, how was he supposed to get some part of her without her or the mortal noticing?

"Damn," he muttered under his breath. "Should've been apprentice to somebody normal."

Night had fully settled over Lilanazar. As enticing as the city was by day, it was even more so by night. Trees flung shadows onto the midnight pavements in the feeble glow of the crescent moon, hanging laundry rippled in the gentle breeze, and stars were scattered across the sky like diamonds.

But none of this was on Russell's mind tonight. _If I were Carmen, where would I be?_ He thought. _Hmmm…library? _

His palms began to itch. She was nearby. His ears cocked and his head jerked in the direction of the Library. He broke into a run.

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Carmen landed the carpet gently. "We're here," she whispered. Motioning to Two-Bit, she pulled a safety pin from her pocket and began to pick the lock of the door manually. Any magic at this hour would be detected.

Turning to Two-Bit, she made a zipping motion across her lips. He nodded seriously. They crept inside the Library and shut the door silently.

The Library was eerie at night. Carmen inhaled deeply at the familiar smell of books. Using the faint moonlight as a guide, Carmen made her way over to the card catalogue. A quick search told her that the book she needed, _Partnership,_ was on the shelf right behind her.

"Here," Two-Bit whispered, handing it to her. Carmen leafed through to the chapter she was searching for. She began to read aloud softly.

"'The magic of one in two souls may come about by either the birth of twins or the sacrifice of one's magic to another who was previously mortal or of magical birth.'"

"Come again?" Two-Bit's face bore a look of utter confusion. Carmen rolled her eyes. Was this guy completely dense? She ignored him and scanned the page for where the book stopped relaying information about twins.

Her eyes widened as she read the section about "sacrificed magic to a mortal."

"What?" Two-Bit hissed. "It says, 'if the two are to hold a strong bonding they may exchange personages for a temporary period and exchange back at will.'" She looked up at Two-Bit. "We can switch bodies."

"Tuff!" Two-Bit whispered excitedly. "When? Anytime?"

Carmen nodded. "But we have to kiss to do it," she said distractedly. She was reading further, looking for ideas.

"Big punishment," Two-Bit said sarcastically. Carmen replaced the book on the shelf. "Come on," she whispered. "Let's get outta here. It's gonna take all night to get home."

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Unseen, unheard, Russell watched them leave. "Gotcha," he whispered triumphantly.

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Anyone got any ideas as to what should happen next? Much appreciated.


	17. Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Chapter Seventeen: Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

Russell followed them back to Tulsa. He arrived five minutes after they did, having used a Transporter spell. His magic wasn't as powerful as it normally was. He was still recovering from the Finder's Spell, which had required so much power it had left him powerless for days.

He scaled the drainpipe expertly and heard Carmen saying, "See you tomorrow," before he wrenched the window open and crawled inside to wait for her.

The process had been laughably easy, or at least he thought so until he actually set foot inside. A split second later, he found himself in a pristine flower bed…on the West side of town.

_Of course. Protection spell. Should've seen that coming,_ he thought ruefully, pulling an azalea bloom out of his hair.

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Carmen let out the breath she had been holding. _I really ought to be more careful,_ she scolded herself. It was just lucky that she had seen him in time, even though he hadn't seen her. There was no telling what he might have done.

She flopped on her bed and tried to clear her mind. She didn't bother to set a spell on the windowsill. Russell wouldn't try that again.

So. They could switch minds. But did Russell know? He had been trying to get in her window…that meant he knew she was close to home. _Well, duh,_ she thought. _He is a Finder._

But somehow, she didn't think that was it. She just had a feeling about it. And ever since she had first escaped Mordred, she had learned to go with her sixth sense feelings.

What did he want now? To spy on her, perhaps, but surely Mordred had some other way of doing that. If only she knew what, she could find a way to block it.

The moon glowed on her face as she contemplated the situation. _At this rate,_ she thought, smirking humorlessly in the lunar light, _they'll come to me._

The phone rang. She nearly jumped out of her skin. She slid down the banister and snatched it off the hook. "Hello?" she ventured cautiously. In the split second before the person on the other line, Carmen imagined a killer on the other line, or Mordred who had figured out how to work a telephone. Or a telemarketer.

It was Two-Bit. He was trying to scare her. _"Carmen," _he said in a raspy voice. _"Are you afraid of the dark?"_

"Whaddya want, Two-Bit?" Carmen asked, faintly annoyed.

"Aw, you just know how to suck the fun outta everything, don'tcha," Two-Bit groaned.

"What do you want, Two-Bit?" Carmen repeated testily.

"The light's on in your house," Two-Bit gave in. "Go. To. SLEEP!" he bellowed the last word.

Carmen rolled her eyes and hung up on him. She turned off all the lights and sat up in bed until she fell asleep just before dawn, watching the moon and worrying, just as she had been for the past few days.

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That afternoon, Two-Bit ambled down to the DX. He was bubbling with energy, excited to try out the spell he had learned just that day, though Carmen's warnings were still ringing in his ears.

"Hey, Soda," he greeted. Soda turned and saw Two-Bit. He raised his eyebrows in an expression of mild surprise.

"Hey, Two-Bit. Long time no see," he said. "Soda, what's up?" Two-Bit asked in alarm.

"Nothing," Soda said. "Just haven't seen you in a while. Steve neither. He's been hangin' around with some girl," he said in disgust.

Two-Bit raised an eyebrow. "Ain't he always? Anyway, didn't he break up with Evie?"

"Yeah, but this new girl's got him mad crazy. I never see him anymore."

Two-Bit grinned mischievously. Now would be a prefect time to use that new spell. He pulled out his switchblade, and hiding it under the table, muttered the spell quietly.

Steve came flying in through the door with a violent jangle of the bell hanging just above the door.

"What the hell?" he was yelling. Soda's eyes bugged out. Two-Bit tried to look as shocked as Soda, but was too busy doubling over laughing.

"Uh, I'll, uh, leave you two alone," Two-Bit said when he was able. He exited quickly and leaned against the wall outside thinking he was going to die of laughter.

Yet another incident when the trials and tribulations of being a wizard made it all worth it.

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Short and stupid, I know. Lately my writing has just gotten worse than usual, or is it just me? Please review and help me out.


	18. Oklahoma is OK

Chapter Eighteen: Oklahoma is O.K.

Disclaimer: The part about the tissues belongs to Terry Pratchett. Oh yeah, and the Outsiders belong to S.E. Hinton and the U of C is…just there. I own everything and everybody else. Okay, on with the show!

Two-Bit was sitting at his desk before class, flipping his switchblade open and closed. For some reason, it no longer glowed whenever he touched it.

Somebody whapped him on the back of the head with the flat of their hand. Two-Bit dropped his mercifully closed switchblade and swore. "What was that for?" he roared.

"Watch your language," Carmen said. Two-Bit turned to her to make a wise remark, but thought better of it when he saw her face.

"What's up?" he asked concernedly. "And what'd you hit me for?"

"Nothing's up, and you should know better than to play with knives in school," she reprimanded, but Two-Bit wasn't buying it. Something was wrong.

"Carmen," he said warningly. She ignored him and instead picked up his switchblade from where it had fallen on the floor and handed it to him.

"Don't make me have to use this on you," he threatened. Carmen rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut.

"Carmen," Two-Bit started again, but the bell rang and class started. Ms. Wilson gave him a death glare from the front of the class, and, for once, Two-Bit shut up.

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Carmen was annoyed. She was also getting homesick again, and that made her even more annoyed. It was hard for people when Carmen was annoyed. It was like being attacked with damp tissue.

Carmen had been away from Lilanazar for so long, she hardly even thought about it anymore. She liked Oklahoma just fine. As the license plates advertised, Oklahoma was O.K. She liked it even more for the simple fact that Two-Bit was here.

But ever since she had been there and back, even in the dark, she couldn't stop thinking about it. It was like a drug. Just when she thought she was over her addiction, it was introduced to her again.

She was annoyed because just this morning, she had woken up, stretched, and looked out the window to see Russell crawling through the grass on his elbows, like a soldier keeping low lest he be shot, towards the front door.

Carmen had made a direct hit with a well-executed spell and sent him flying, but she wondered why Mordred didn't just come barging in himself and kill her. That was more his style than to make his apprentice appear to be under the incorrect impression that he was dodging bullets in middle of a war in the jungles of a far-off land known to most around here as Nam.

She just couldn't figure it out. It was inexplicable. She and her mother had been able to see through all his other plans and defeat him…well, she didn't have her mother to do any deciphering this time.

Then there was Two-Bit performing that spell on what's-his-name. Sean? Sam? Steve. That was it. He did the dumbest things sometimes. Carmen often despaired of him as a Homo sapien, and the way he acted sometimes she wasn't sure if he was even that or just a monkey with opposable thumbs in a leather jacket.

Despite all that, though, she liked him anyway. He was one of the few people you could rely on. He was genuine, and, as Carmen knew all too well, that was a trait that didn't come up too often.

She was so lost in thought during class, not about Trigonometry but about Russell's guerilla attempt this morning, that she didn't even notice when the bell rang. Two-Bit nudged her, poked her, shouted at her and ended up hitting her very hard on the head with his notebook until she finally responded.

"Ow!" she yelped just as Two-Bit was reaching for his Trigonometry book. Carmen eyed the five-pound volume warily. "You're not still gonna hit me with that, are you?"

"No, but I ought to," Two-Bit muttered. In the hallway, he rested his arm on her shoulder. "You okay?" he asked.

Carmen gave in and explained the situation that had occurred that morning.

"I'll kill him," Two-Bit growled menacingly.

"No need. He's somewhere in Kansas by now," Carmen assured him.

"Why Kansas?" Two-Bit asked, his brow wrinkling with confusion.

Carmen shrugged. "It was the first place that came to mind," she admitted sheepishly.

"That's not too far. He'll be back soon," Two-Bit said. "And then we'll be ready for him."

"Not _that_ soon," Carmen said, a smile spreading across her face without her consent.

Two-Bit saw that smile before she could hide it. Realization dawned. "Oh, no, Carmen, you didn't," he groaned.

"I did," Carmen said, feeling quite pleased with herself.

Two-Bit leaned in conspiratorially. "So, what'd you do?" he whispered.

Carmen rolled her eyes. "Nothing _too_ extreme," she said casually. "I sent him to Kansas…in 1847."

Two-Bit's jaw dropped. "What the hell were you—? How did you do that?" he exclaimed.

Carmen smirked and shrugged so that his arm slipped off his shoulder. "That's for me to know, and you to find out," she said coolly, ducking into class before he could stop her.

"I'll find out from you, though, right?" he hollered after her.

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_This is so typical,_ Russell thought. _Another damn protection. Damn that chick._

One moment, he had been in Oklahoma trying to get to Carmen's front door using his elbows for the function that his feet were normally reserved for, as per Mordred's instructions, to avoid any spells that might have been set.

_A lot of good that did me,_ Russell griped to himself. He had no idea where he was, only that where he was included a lot of cornfields and a hick who was walking towards him.

"Well, hello, there," he drawled. "How can I help you, son?"

"Uh, where am I?" Russell asked slowly.

"Yer in Sacred, Kansas, population 38," the farmer said proudly. "Ah don't thank Ah've seen you in these here parts before. You from 'round here? Yer accent sounds strange t'mah ear."

Once again, Russell reflected on exactly how much he hated Carmen for getting him into situations like this.

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My god, it's been so long. I hope this wasn't too cheesy (probably was) but I wanted to update. Jeez, over a month. Review, please!


	19. Switching Identities

Chapter Nineteen: Switching Identities

Russell was fed up. He was sick and tired of Carmen always pulling one over on him when he thought that he was finally going to pull one over on him. It had taken him well over a week in that blasted place to gather enough power to come back to the future.

But there was no way out of it. He knew all too well.

Shortly after Carmen and her now dead mother had escaped for the first time, Russell had tried escaping Mordred. But as soon as he had stepped off the grounds…

_Flashback: _I'm getting out of here,_ Russell thought. _I've had enough.

_It was the dead of night and Mordred was asleep. Russell hoisted himself off the window ledge and landed like a cat on the soft, dewy grass. _

Home free!_ He cheered inwardly as he sprinted to freedom. But he had spoken too soon. As soon as his foot landed on the road, he felt as though the sky had crashed onto his head and he collapsed in agony. _

"_You dare try to escape me?" an ethereal voice boomed amid clouds crashing thunderously and lightning illuminating the trees, reaching for him. Russell looked up at his livid master in terror.  
_

"_I…no, master, I..."_

"_Do not lie to me!" Mordred bellowed, yanking Russell up roughly by his collar. _

_End flashback._

Russell still had the scars across his back. He couldn't live through that again.

He had to do something to fulfill his mission. But what?

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A shadow fell across Carmen's book. She looked up into Two-Bit's cheeky grin and couldn't resist smiling herself.

"Hey," she began, but was cut off by Two-Bit kissing her square on the mouth. "What was that for?"

"Can't a guy kiss the girl he loves?" Two-Bit asked, still grinning charmingly. Carmen blushed and Two-Bit grinned even wider.

"So what's the plan for the rest of the afternoon?" he asked.

"See you at debate club," Carmen said as the bell rang, signifying the end of the lunch hour.

"Oh, right," said Two-Bit. "So, where is that exactly?"

Carmen stared at him. "You're kidding, right? Even you aren't that scatterbrained," she said.

"Yeah," Two-Bit laughed. "Just kidding."

Carmen gave him a weird look before walking off. _He's in a very odd mood,_ she thought.

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The greaser laughed at Carmen' retreating back. She was so gullible it wasn't funny.

He slipped into the nearest restroom. Moments later, a golden-haired, golden-eyed boy stepped out, looking around sketchily.

When he had seen that the coast was clear, he sighed in relief. Carmen's skin cells lay on his lips. He had completed his mission. There was possibly no worse torture than having to show affection for your worst enemy, but he had done it.

There wasn't enough time to get the mortal back here for this "debate club." He would have to go through the rest of the day as this mortal idiot, Two-Bit.

He transformed in one liquid motion, with a slight groan as his molecules contracted and diluted.

He grinned wickedly and headed off. This was going to be a breeze.

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Two-Bit writhed and thrashed, struggling in vain to escape the unbreakable invisible magical ties that bound him to the floor of Mordred's dungeon. Mordred had stilled his voice after about five minutes of Two-Bit screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs.

He didn't remember anything, just that one minute he had been heading for Spanish and the next thing he knew he had blacked out and woken up here.

Mordred was kind enough to let him watch the scene as it unfolded. Two-Bit squeezed his eyes shut as Russell, disguised as him, kissed Carmen. He was sure that was being done just to set him off, but it still made his insides feel like lead.

"He'll set you back later," Mordred cackled, "But it'll be too late! We'll have killed her by then! And there's nothing you can do about it, you mortal fool!"

Two-Bit watched helplessly and swore that the next time he saw Russell he would clobber him. Which, by Mordred's epithet, didn't sound too far away. The thought worried him and at the same time gave him a guilty pleasure because it meant that he could beat Russell's face in all the sooner.

For now, though, all he could do was watch and pray, absurdly, that Carmen would realize it wasn't him.

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Admit it. You saw the chapter title and thought it was gonna be Carmen and Two-Bit switching. Lame chapter, but there you have it.


	20. Blondes or Brunettes?

Chapter Twenty: Blondes or Brunettes?

Russell, disguised as Two-Bit, strolled into debate club. Carmen stared at him.

"You remembered? And you're on time?" she said.

Russell fumbled for a decent excuse, but was saved. Carmen clapped him on the back pal-ishly before he could say a word.

"Way to go," she said encouragingly. "Keep it up." She laughed suddenly. "I sound like a motivational speaker, right?"

Russell nodded. He wasn't at all sure what to say.

Carmen frowned at him suspiciously. "You're awfully quiet today," she said suspiciously.

Russell thought quickly. This mortal was supposed to always be making wisecracks. "Why did the chicken cross the road?" he said on sudden inspiration.

"Huh?" Carmen stared at him like he had grown a second head. "You feeling alright?"

"Yeah," Russell said hurriedly. "Just play along." He rubbed a sideburn nervously. They looked cool, or "tuff," as they supposedly said around here, enough, but they itched worse than mosquito bites.

"I don't know. Why?" Carmen asked.

"To get to the other side?" Russell tried the obvious answer.

Carmen rolled her eyes. "That's the worst joke you've ever cracked," she groaned. "And that's saying something."

"Uh huh," said Russell. It was more difficult than it seemed, being the mortal.

Ms. Wilson took her place at the front of the class and debate club began.

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"What now?" Carmen asked Two-Bit after debate club when they were outside in the sunshine, free of Ms. Wilson's wilting stare.

"I've gotta get home," he said.

"Why?" Carmen asked.

"I mean, to the Curtis' house," he changed his story.

"None of them are there. Soda and Darry work and Pony's got track," Carmen reminded him. He was acting very sketchy. Then it dawned on her. "If you've got one of your stupid parties to go to, you can say so," she said.

Two-Bit seemed oddly relieved. "Yeah! I've got a party to get to! Uh…lots of…alcoholic beverages and brunettes!"

An alarm went off in Carmen's head. Two-Bit had been acting weird all day, but Two-Bit liked blondes, not brunettes. And he wasn't about to forget that, no matter how weird he chose to act.

Maybe he had misspoken. "Did you say brunettes?" she asked.

"Yeah," Two-Bit responded. There was no mistaking it, she was sure.

She turned slowly and peered carefully into Two-Bit's eyes. He swallowed and blinked and turned to go, but Carmen grabbed his leather-sleeved arm.

She stared hard into his eyes. They weren't their usual color. A small but terrifying sentence popped into her head: _Russell was never one to pay much attention to detail._

His eyes were gold.

Carmen let go of his arm and took a step back. When she spoke, her voice felt faraway as panic sucked all the breath out of her lungs. "You're not Two-Bit," she said. "You're…" she couldn't even bring herself to say his name. "You're Russell," she finally managed.

Two-Bit grinned wickedly. His teeth looked too big and too sharp, like a wolf's incisors. "You finally managed to figure it out," he said. It was almost funny, hearing Russell's quiet, deadly voice coming from Two-Bit, who would holler in a library for fun.

"Where's Two-Bit?" Carmen demanded, her voice getting stronger as she got angrier.

Russell laughed, a long terrible sound. In a fluid motion he transformed back, and suddenly Carmen was staring at the golden-haired, golden-eyed monster she had always hated.

"Where's Two-Bit?" Carmen repeated more loudly.

"Don't worry about Two-Bit," Russell chuckled. His voice was almost friendly when he continued: "He won't feel any pain—I promise you. And you won't have to grieve for him anyway. By the time we're finished with you, you won't even remember him."

Carmen swung her arm back and stepped forward to fight greaser style, but as she moved to release the punch, her arm froze. Russell grinned.

"Don't think this is going to be so easy," he said. "You got off easy at our last little encounter. Not this time, Caiman," he said, calling her by the childhood nickname she had always hated.

Carmen had discovered that while Russell had immobilized her good hand, she could still move the other. While Russell was snickering to himself, she drew it back and let it fly forward like lightening, smashing into Russell's jaw.

His head snapped backwards. When he looked up again, his mouth was bleeding and his face was twisted with rage and pain.

"You're paying for that one," he snarled.

His freezing charm had worn off her arm. She now raised both of them, ready to fight.

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_All right, Carmen!_ Two-Bit was thinking. _You go, girl!_

"You idiot!" Mordred was raging. "Come back! Come back here this instant!" He was jumping up and down, knees as high as his shoulders, he was so angry. Two-Bit was shaking with silent laughter at the scene.

But of course they couldn't hear him. And so Mordred pitched a fit and Two-Bit had a laughing fit watching Russell and Carmen have it out.


	21. FatherDaughter Bonding

Chapter Twenty-One: Father-Daughter Bonding

Carmen raised her fists, ready to deck him again. Russell wiped the blood away from his mouth.

To Carmen's surprise, he chuckled. "You think you can defeat me?" he chortled. "You think this mortal foolishness," he indicated her fists, "will stop me?"

He took a step closer. Carmen raised her fists a little higher, trying not to let her panic show. "Stay back," she managed through gritted teeth, though her heart was in her throat. He had caught her unawares before, it was true, but somehow, this time he was even more terrifying than ever. He looked the same, but conducted himself differently.

Russell laughed again. It made Carmen's hair stand on end. She knew that laugh. That definitely wasn't his laugh. It was Mordred's.

No. It couldn't be.

"No, Carmen," Russell grinned terribly. "Mordred hasn't possessed me. But he has lent me his power. I can be," he declared, his body was fluidly changing, "anyone," he cackled as he was Mordred, "anytime," his voice deepened and took on an Oklahoman twang as he was Two-Bit, "anywhere," and himself again.

Carmen unconsciously took a step back as he advanced upon her. Russell noticed this action and smiled even more widely.

"You can't run from me forever, Caiman," he said softly. His voice was like black silk. Carmen wondered whose voice it really was.

Russell took another step forward, and Carmen took another one back and her back was suddenly against the wall. She was trapped.

Russell bared his teeth, still grinning maniacally. "Gotcha," he whispered. Then, before Carmen even knew what was happening, he lunged forward and, grabbing her by the shoulders, vanished.

They landed with a crash on Mordred's dungeon floor, with Russell's back thwacking against the hard stone. Carmen had somehow ended up on top of Russell, her knees jabbing into his kidneys.

Whipping out a blade, she held the edge to Russell's throat. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't slit your throat now," she snarled. The words were barely out of her mouth when the blade in question flew out of her hand and sailed smoothly into Mordred's, where it crumbled into dust.

"My dear daughter," he smirked. "Welcome."

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_Carmen!_ Two-Bit thought, overjoyed. _Kick his ass so we can get outta here!_

"Where's Two-Bit?" he heard her ask.

_Can't she see me?_ Two-Bit thought desperately. _Did Mordred put an invisibility thing on me too? Man, if only I could wring his scrawny neck…_

"Get off my apprentice," Mordred responded. "And then we can discuss the matter."

Russell pushed Carmen off and massaged his sides, shooting her nasty looks that she returned with a dignified, icy stare.

"Where is Two-Bit?" Carmen repeated, her eyes smoldering embers though her expression remained the same as she looked Mordred square in the eye.

"Now, now," Mordred said with a pained expression. "Must we once again decline from the formalities of negotiation and proper dueling? Come, come, do have a seat. We have so much…catching up to do," he said with an evil smile.

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"Do tell," Mordred said, still smiling, pouring a cup of steaming tea once they had sat down at a stone table in the dark, damp dungeon. "How is it that you came to break the fairy's curse?"

Carmen didn't touch her cup. It could be poison, for all she knew, or something that would force the truth out of her. Or just really bad tea.

"Why should I tell you?" she replied coldly. "You're just going to use it against me."

"On the contrary, my dear." The term of affection sounded strange from Mordred's mouth. "I want to help you. You see, if you tell me what I want to know, then you can see your mortal friend again."

Carmen's heart rate quickened. Two-Bit?

"Drink up," Mordred urged. "So, how did you manage?"

"Where's Two-Bit?" Carmen blurted, ignoring the two statements he had just made.

"All in good time, my dear, all in good time," Mordred smiled.

Carmen pretended to take a sip. Lowering the cup, she said, "Why are you doing this? Why can't you leave him out of this?"

"Because you share his magic. And, my dear, I want all of it. You can keep your magic for now and let him die, and I'll just acquire it later, or you can forfeit it and he's yours. You can be perfectly happy as mortals," he scowled the word, as if saying it left a bad taste in his mouth.

"No choice?" Carmen asked without hope.

"None," Mordred replied flatly. He smiled again. Just seeing it frightened Carmen more than seeing his rage. "Drink up, your tea's getting cold."

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Ooh, cliffhanger. Sort of. I hate this chapter but there it is anyway. Blah.


	22. Just Perfect

Chapter Twenty-Two: Just Perfect

Upon realizing that Carmen was trapped in her situation, Two-Bit began thrashing fruitlessly and screaming profanities until his throat felt ragged and torn. But of course none of this was noticed by anyone except Russell, who stood in the furthest, darkest corner of the room watching Two-Bit struggle, and shaking with silent laughter.

_As soon as I get free, that smarmy bastard's dead, _Two-Bit vowed viciously, redoubling his efforts as Russell sunk further into the shadows.

_There has to be some way for Carmen to realize I'm here,_ Two-Bit thought desperately. _Something! Anything!_

He gave up at last, exhausted. Mordred's glance wavered from Carmen to him, but only for a moment. Carmen probably hadn't even realized it, because she didn't turn to see what he was looking at.

"Russell," Mordred said quietly. "Would you please, ah, take out the trash?"

"Certainly, master," Russell said obediently. Carmen now turned to see behind her. Russell snapped his fingers out of Carmen's sight, though Two-Bit could see him do it.

Russell's spell dissolved the force of gravity from Two-Bit and was replaced by the force of Russell's will as Two-Bit was levitated out of the room. But of course Russell couldn't do it without his bit of fun, and so, instead of merely drifting out, Two-Bit's body flexed and twisted in a way he hadn't known was possible as he ballet danced through the air, graceful as a prima ballerina while his face read of murder and he mouthed swearwords.

Outside, Russell released his roaring laughter and his grip on Two-Bit over the trashcan. Two-Bit was thrown in headfirst and immediately discovered, as he struggled to get out, that he was stuck, his legs dangling up in the air. Russell, still howling with laughter, slammed the door behind him as he went back inside.

Two-Bit cursed inwardly as he kicked in vain trying to get out. _That stupid, cowardly, unintelligent, sycophantic…straight-up fool! I'll kill him as soon as Carmen gets me free! _

_Carmen,_ he remembered suddenly. _I hope she's okay._

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"Why does it matter to you?" Carmen changed tactics. "I mean, you're already the most powerful wizard, why do you need my magic?"

"You will thwart me no longer," Mordred responded in a voice of quiet evil.

"I don't want to thwart anybody!" Carmen insisted, sounding absurd even to herself. "Just why can't you leave us alone?"

"Us?" Mordred echoed, his eyebrow shooting up in surprise.

"Yes, us," Carmen said. "Me and Two-Bit. The mortal," she added for Mordred's benefit. "He has nothing to do with this."

"You shared your magic with him," Mordred reminded. "And he, too, must be stripped of the power you have given him."

"Please, leave him out of it," Carmen implored. "Leave him alone. He has a life outside all this. He has a mom, a sister, friends who are like his brothers—"

Mordred cut her off. "He will have committed suicide for unknown reasons," he said shortly. "They will move on without him. What is he good for in any case? Stealing? Making worthless jokes? He will not even be remembered a few years from now to them."

Carmen was speechless for a moment, but recovered quickly. "I'll make a bargain with you," she tried desperately. "I'll…I'll exchange my life for his. I'll take back his magic, and erase his memory and he won't remember a thing."

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Mordred kept a straight face on the outside, but was smiling broadly on the inside. "Well, there would have to be a few minor adjustments," he said. "But I don't see why not. I could always use another slave…I mean apprentice," he allowed himself a bit of a joke as Russell had not yet returned.

_Perfect,_ he thought. _I've got her exactly where I want her._

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_Perfect, _Carmen thought. _I've got him exactly where I want him._

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_Perfect,_ Two-Bit thought in disgust. _This is exactly where I want to be._

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Review, please?


	23. The Power of Love?

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Power of Love

Russell ducked back into the room and resigned himself once more to the darkest shadows of the dungeon to listen to Carmen and Mordred bargain.

"Where's Two-Bit? How do I know you haven't killed him already?" Carmen argued.

Mordred chuckled lightly. "Why don't you use that sorcery of yours?"

"How do I know you won't harness it and leave me powerless as soon as I cast a spell?" Carmen shot back.

Russell was impressed despite himself. He had learned the hard way that magic is left momentarily vulnerable and in the open air in the split second after a spell is cast before it returns to its master's soul. Mordred was powerful enough to snatch it out of thin air, away from its rightful owner.

Mordred appeared impressed as well, for he set down his teacup and actually applauded a little. "Very well deduced, Carmen," he congratulated. "I commend you. Very well, you have convinced me. Russell!"

Russell stepped obediently forward. "Yes, master?"

"Bring in the mortal fool."

Russell did so, dragging in a garbage-smeared Two-Bit rather roughly, more so than was necessary for extra malice.

Mordred, with a swish of his wand, removed from Two-Bit the invisibility charm and the silencing spell he had cast, but kept him bound.

"_WHAT THE—_oh. Carmen!" Two-Bit exclaimed.

"Two-Bit!" Carmen exclaimed. Russell thought they sounded like bad actors in a bad movie.

"Enough chit-chat," Mordred interrupted. "Our bargain, Carmen, was your life in exchange for his. He is free," another swish of the wand, and Two-Bit was released of his bindings, "and now I shall reap the benefits."

"No!" Two-Bit blurted.

Mordred smiled. "Very well. If you want to do this the hard way." His eyes glittered with malice as he raised his wand and began to chant…

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Carmen and Two-Bit shared magic; therefore, they shared a bond. This, they were sure, was something Mordred didn't know about. How could he?

As Mordred chanted, the wind howled and the dungeon began to spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster, pivoting around Mordred.

As the room unhinged from its foundation and toppled as it spun, Carmen, Two-Bit and Russell fell to the ground and hung on to whatever they could.

Carmen reached out to Two-Bit with her left hand, digging her fingernails into the cracks on the stone floor and clinging to it for dear life.

Two-Bit grasped her hand in his, his other arm interlocked around a table leg.

Electricity wound itself around sorcery and wizardry as the two forms of magic collided, bridging the synapses of their nerves through which magic crackled and closing the gaps between their fingertips. Their minds were connected.

_Carmen, you're crazy!_ Two-Bit shouted. _You can't do this!_

_I can!_ Carmen screamed back. _I have to!_

Working as one, they pooled their power and wove it together, interlocking their individual abilities.

_Maybe we can throw him off!_ Two-Bit said.

_That's crazy!_ Carmen replied.

_I know! But it's the only plan we've got!_

_No, it's not. You're going back as a mortal and you won't remember anything,_ Carmen told him. _I have to die._

_No!_ Two-Bit said, slightly panicked. _You're not going to die! We'll make it through! _

_Don't be stupid. It's the only way. I'm not going to make it, and—_

Two-Bit cut her off. _Yes, you are. _

_You're an imbecile. He's the most powerful wizard in the world, and we're two teenagers. What do we have over him?_

_The power of love? _Two-Bit suggested.

_That only works in the movies!_

_Don't do this to me, Carmen. We just have to throw him off. We can. _

Carmen closed her eyes as the room tumbled again. _I can't._

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Cliffhanger, cause I can. Review, please?


	24. Tulsa, Not Tuscan

Chapter Twenty-Four: Tulsa, Not Tuscan

"Stop!" Carmen screamed over the howling wind. "Stop! He didn't mean anything!"

But Mordred either didn't hear her or he chose to ignore her. Instead, he raised his arms and a black swirl emerged from his sleeves.

_That's no ordinary swirl of doom,_ Two-Bit realized with horror. _Those are…what the hell are they?_

Whatever they were, Two-Bit knew one thing for sure: they were insects, buzzing and with stingers, as he quickly discovered as they descended upon him.

Each sting reminded Two-Bit painfully of the time when he was eight and got stung by a hornet. A knife wound had never hurt so badly, and here it was again, thousand times over.

He dared not open his mouth to yelp in pain, though he very much would have liked to, but he was afraid they would fly inside his mouth and down his throat. He couldn't even bat them away, for if he let go of the table leg he clung to he would fly god-knows-where in the spinning, tumbling dungeon.

Through his pain, he felt a nudge in his brain. It was Carmen. She wasn't saying anything, just pushing. Pushing gently at his conscious self, until he finally realized what she meant.

He allowed her into his mind, and in turn elbowed his way into hers. Simultaneously, they each let go of themselves and settled firmly into the other.

At first, Two-Bit nearly relaxed his grip in surprise, but caught himself in time as his—well, Carmen's—fingernails began to lose their grip in the floor. The insect bites hurt worse than ever. _Carmen must have sensitive skin,_ he thought.

"We can negotiate!" Carmen in his body was hollering. Two-Bit glanced over at her to see her take a deep breath before letting loose with an ear-shattering scream:

"_I'LL MAKE YOU A BARGAIN!"_

Two-Bit was tempted to cover his ears at the noise. Mordred lowered his arms and the insects seemed to disintegrate, the winds died down and the room leveled off and settled back.

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Thoroughly shaken, Carmen loosened her grip on the table and stood up. Mordred, though he was shorter than Two-Bit, still managed to loom over her.

"Yes?" Mordred said condescendingly. "What do you wish to tell me, mortal?"

"As far as I know," she began carefully, "the terms were that Carmen is to exchange her life for my freedom."

"Those were the terms, yes," Mordred said coldly.

"Well," Carmen said slowly, even as she cast a spell. She hay have been in a wizard's body, but she could still do sorcery. Two-Bit's—well, hers, but he was the one controlling it—jaw was locked shut so he couldn't speak, his arms and legs stiffened so he couldn't move, and his expression frozen so he couldn't convey any disagreement to what Carmen was going to say next:

"I accept."

She could hear Russell inhale sharply behind her, and could feel, in her head, Two-Bit fighting to get his own body back. He was shouting at her mentally:

_You idiot! Let me back in right now! I'm not going to let you do this! You know, if you hadn't paralyzed me, I'd be back in my body by now and we'd be kicking Mordred's sorry ass? What is with people and making me immobile these days? LET ME IN!_

Carmen ignored him and held Mordred's icy gaze.

"Very well," he said finally, not moving his eyes from hers. "There is only one matter to be settled: when you say that Carmen's life is to be exchanged for Two-Bit's, do you mean Carmen in Two-Bit is to be exchanged for Two-Bit in Carmen, or vice versa?"

Carmen gasped; she released her grip on Two-Bit's muscles and he was mobile once more. But he made no motion. Like Carmen, he seemed to be stunned. How had Mordred known?

"You two whippersnappers," he chuckled, turning his back on them. "What a strange word that is. Whippersnappers. I've always quite wanted the chance to use it, and here it is!"

_Is he mad, or just insane?_ Carmen wondered.

Two-Bit was still trying to kick her out of his body, and so she exited his body and reentered her own.

Mordred turned back around, a wide smile still on his face. "Ah," he said. "So you've decided to uncomplicated things. Very well, Carmen," he turned to her. "Would you prefer to say your goodbyes now, or would you like to escort him back to Tuscan and say farewell there?"

"It's Tulsa," Carmen snarled. "And how did you know we were back to ourselves again?"

Mordred merely smiled. "Dear daughter," Carmen flinched at the word, "Why would I tell you that? That would give away the surprise. A good wizard never reveals his secrets."

"I thought that was magicians," Two-Bit broke in.

"Quiet, mortal, or I shall see to it that your return to Torino will be an unpleasant one."

"It's Tulsa," Carmen repeated heatedly. "If you're going to send him back, at least send him back to the right place!"

"Is that your final request?" Russell said nastily from his corner.

Carmen didn't bother to answer, but instead turned and hit Russell in the chest with the longest, trickiest, most painful spell she could think of.

Almost immediately, Russell began scratching. From what she could see of his skin—his face, neck, arms—it was reddening, swelling and peeling. Welts the size of tennis balls rose wherever he scratched, and he itched like crazy.

Mordred made no move to help his apprentice. "I suppose you are taking advantage of your last moments as a sorceress?" he said flatly.

"Yes," Carmen said. "All right." She stood straight, her arms extended in either direction so that her body was a cross. "I'm ready."

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Two-Bit couldn't allow this to happen. He wouldn't let himself be responsible for Carmen's death. But what was he supposed to do, with Mordred somehow knowing his every move.

His eyes fell upon Russell, scratching like crazy. He darted over and grabbed Russell in a headlock, flicking out his blade and holding it to Russell's throat.

"You do anything to her and your apprentice dies!" he said loudly.

Mordred glanced briefly at the two boys and shrugged. "Do whatever you like with him," he said uncaringly. "I'll find another apprentice. One that's more useful."

He turned back to Carmen and, raising both hands with his thin, bony fingers splayed out, he began to chant as Two-Bit watched helplessly.

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	25. Theories of Magic

Disclaimer: S.E. Hinton for the Outsiders and Pirates of the Caribbean for a bit of dialogue.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Theories of Magic

Russell, who had been struggling with Two-Bit, stopped at Mordred's words. Find another apprentice?

_It's just to throw him off,_ Russell tried to convince himself. But he couldn't lie to himself. Mordred thought of him as a possession, a golem that would do his every bidding. But he had never imagined that his master would dismiss his very life so willingly.

_I don't know why I'm so surprised,_ he thought bitterly. _He's never cared for anyone or anything but himself. Just look at what he's doing to his own daughter._

Rage overcame him. Master or not, how dare Mordred do this to him? After everything he had been through for the wizard…

But that was just it. It was he who had overcome every obstacle, with Mordred following behind to reap the rewards.

Magic is unlike man in that it knows unprejudiced justice. Rightfully, then, the power that Mordred had benefited from all this time was really his.

It was one-to-a-million chance that Russell was right, but the way he looked at it, what did he have to lose? Once Mordred had his daughter's power, he would no longer have use for Russell anyway.

Russell knew, from watching Mordred take other magical creatures' powers, that this was a long and tricky spell. It would take at least five minutes, so he would have to work fast.

"Hey, mortal," he muttered in the switchblade-armed guy's ear. "I'll make you a bargain."

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Two-Bit ignored Russell until he whispered it again: "I mean it. Not to help you, mind you. Once he's done with her, he won't have any use for me anymore."

"So why don't I slit your throat now?" Two-Bit snarled, pushing slightly against Russell's throat, enough to scare him but not enough to draw blood.

"Because then you can't save Carmen."

Two-Bit closed and pocketed his switchblade, releasing Russell, who massaged his throat, looking reproachful. "I'm listening," Two-Bit muttered.

Russell told him the plan. Two-Bit didn't like it, but it seemed to be the only way to save Carmen.

"Just one more thing," Russell said out of the corner of his mouth to Two-Bit. "How far are you willing to go for her?"

"I'd die for her," Two-Bit said without hesitation.

"Oh, good. No worries then," Russell said. "C'mon, let's go."

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Carmen struggled to keep her breathing even. She had wondered, since her mother's death, what it was like to die. Well, now she was finding out.

Mordred chanted endlessly, but suddenly faltered at crashing noises behind her. Carmen opened her eyes. Mordred was livid, screaming curses and hurling them. Carmen stood still as a statue, but the curses flew right by her. Surely even Mordred couldn't have _that _bad aim?

She turned. Her jaw dropped. Two-Bit…and Russell?

Maybe this was just part of the spell. Maybe losing your head was a sign that you were dying.

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"You sure about this?" Two-Bit hollered to Russell over the smashes of glass against stone as they overturned shelves and knocked over endless rows of jars of things Two-Bit didn't want to think about.

"No! But I know that it's in here somewhere!"

According to Russell, Mordred couldn't control all the magic he had gathered all at one time. So he stored it, somewhere in his dungeon. Russell knew it was in a glass jar. But which one, it was hard to say.

"Found it!" Russell yelled. Two-Bit looked over in time to see Russell overturn a shelf, hidden behind one they had just brought down.

"What are you idiots doing?" Mordred screeched. "Russell, don't you dare!"

But it was too late. It landed with a tremendous crash that made everyone present except Mordred cover their ears. It was the loudest thing Two-Bit had ever heard, louder than a rodeo, a drag race, or Buck's parties.

From the wreckage swirled mist of what Two-Bit supposed was magic.

"Yes," Russell crowed. "I knew it! My theory was right!"

_What theory?_ Two-Bit wondered, but no sooner than Russell had said it than did the magic disintegrate, leaving nothing.

"No!" Russell groaned. "I knew it! My theory was wrong!"

"You fool!" Mordred raged, storming over and grabbing Russell by the collar. "Do you realize what you've done?"

"He's returned all the magic in the world to those it rightfully belongs with," Carmen said. It was the first she'd spoken this whole time, and she looked thoroughly shaken. "Magic knows justice without bias, and—"

"We all know it, you stupid girl!" Mordred fumed. He seemed to be going over the edge.

_Everyone except me,_ Two-Bit thought. _No one tells me useful stuff like that._

Mordred rounded on Russell. "You've cost me the magic it took years to acquire!" he shouted, his eyes wild. "And you shall pay!"

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	26. Sophoclean Duels

Chapter Twenty-Six: Sophoclean Duels

Mordred suddenly dropped Russell to the ground. Russell cowered, shielding his face with his arms.

"Oh my god, it's coming _back?"_ Carmen whispered in disbelief.

Russell looked around. Indeed, the swirling mist that had dispersed was reentering the room.

"What the hell?" the mortal said.

Mordred stared coldly down at his apprentice. "Did you really think," he said slowly, "that I would not be prepared for a situation such as this? Did you not think I would not be prepared for the day someone would try and thwart me? I had only wished it would not be you…and you have disappointed me once again. Pity. But you'll make a better mantelpiece than apprentice, I think."

Russell stared at his master in shock. No matter how many times the idea was presented to him, he couldn't get over the fact that his master, for whom he might have had to die for, would discard Russell's life like it was nothing.

He babbled hoarsely, "But…the magic…it was gone…"

Mordred smirked. "I prepared for a situation like this, fool. When I took others' magic, I knew that if I ever lost my magic, they would get their own back and it would be lost to me forever. No, I ensured it would remain with me. I made sure it could never get back to them when I killed them."

Mordred strode past Russell towards Carmen. "What say you now, daughter?" he asked. "Do you still feel that you are in a position to bargain?"

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Two-Bit's mouth operated independently from the rest of him. "Take me instead!" it blurted. "Don't hurt her. Kill me and let her go free."

Mordred cut his eyes at Two-Bit. "How sentimental," he said dryly. "But you are worthless."

"Anything to save her," Two-Bit pleaded. "Please. Don't…" He stopped himself. He had been about to ask, _Don't you have a heart?_ But of course he didn't.

Mordred turned back to Two-Bit. For a moment, hope leaped in Two-Bit's chest. Was Mordred actually reconsidering?

But no, he wasn't. A wicked smile spread across Mordred's face.

_Uh oh,_ Two-Bit thought.

Mordred turned back to Carmen. "What do you say to a duel?" he said.

"A duel," Carmen said flatly. "Is that the best you can come up with?"

"I thought we'd take a more indirect approach. I don't suppose you are aware of the Sophoclean method. It is not taught until the second year of university, and even then only in the most select and elite of them, the Vine Leaguers, as they so quaintly call themselves." Mordred seemed to be enjoying himself more and more.

"I'm sure you're going to tell me," Carmen responded coldly.

"The method in which each opponent sets up an obstacle course of a given length and difficulty for the other, and the one to make it through first is the winner."

Mordred had an immensely unfair advantage, and he knew it. So did Carmen, whose face fell. But, it wasn't like she had a choice. Even if she did, Two-Bit doubted very much that she would have backed down from it.

"What are the limitations?" she asked wearily.

"The course may be of any length and of any level of difficulty," Mordred said simply. "In other words, there are no limitations, save for that there must be an exit at the end. And an assistant is allowed."

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Russell knew then that he was in for it. Whatever Carmen cooked up, he would have to go through it with Mordred just behind him, barking orders in his ear and then taking all the glory. He was used to it by now, but being used to it didn't mean he liked it, either.

"Two-Bit," Carmen said automatically.

"I might have known," Mordred said. "You two run through my little obstacle course and beat me coming out from yours, and you keep your lives and your magic. No need to worry, mortal," he chuckled upon seeing Two-Bit's horrified face. "Even if you lose, you keep your life. It's she who loses hers. No use arguing," he added pleasantly. "The deal has been set. Would you prefer to say your goodbyes now or later?"

"Later," Carmen said firmly. "When will we be setting up our obstacles?"

"Tonight. The challenges will be first thing tomorrow morning," Mordred said, striding towards the door. "Come, Russell."

Russell came.

"Sweet dreams," Mordred said to the two teenagers before slamming the dungeon door shut, plunging them into darkness.

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First update in forever. I don't think it's that good.


	27. Resent or Resemble?

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Resent or Resemble?

Carmen began shuffling through the darkness. Apparently, so was Two-Bit, because they ran right into each other.

"Ouch!" they both gasped, then, "Sorry."

"I don't think he has a light switch in here," Two-Bit remarked.

"He has torch holders," Carmen said.

"How do you know?"

"I saw them when we came in."

"I think I found one," Two-Bit called from the other side of the dungeon.

"So light it." The words were no sooner out of Carmen's mouth when every single torch erupted in flames, illuminating the entire dungeon.

"Magic. Light one, light 'em all," she said, turning to a stunned Two-Bit, who was holding a lighter.

"How could you have been so stupid?" he demanded, the astonished look on his face hardening into one of rage. "Making a deal like that, that's about the stupidest thing you've ever done, and believe me, you've done some pretty stupid things since I've known you, and—"

"Two-Bit," Carmen interrupted, "we haven't got time for this."

"Okay," he said angrily, tucking his lighter back in his pocket. "I'll yell at you later. What are we going to do for this obstacle course thing?"

"I don't know," Carmen said, scanning the dungeon carefully. "But I bet you anything Mordred's listening in right now."

"How the hell are we supposed to plan anything if he knows what we're doing?" Two-Bit demanded.

"I don't know!"

"What if he can't?" Two-Bit said. "It's worth a shot, right?" When Carmen hesitated, he went on. "Come on. We can't plan anything if we can't talk. And we won't get anything done if we spend the whole time worrying about Mordred."

Carmen hesitated a moment before answering, "Okay."

"What were you thinking?" Two-Bit asked.

"Something to do with mortals," Carmen said. "Because that's what he hates."

"So where do we put him that has to do with mortals?"

"Somewhere complicated, somewhere he'll never figure out how to get out of," Carmen said absently. She was thinking.

"What about life?" Two-Bit suggested randomly.

Carmen stared at him. "Like, the 'real world'?"

"Something like that," Two-Bit frowned. That was the first time he had heard Carmen use "like" in that manner. Tulsa was rubbing off on her. He wasn't sure he liked it.

"And the only way to get out is…" Carmen was saying.

"To die? No, wait, that's too easy. And he'd just kill his assistant," Two-Bit said.

"Get out. As in escape. As in the saying, 'escape from the real world'," Carmen said aloud. "Two-Bit, you're a genius!" She paused. "So how do you do that?"

"TV. Food. Sleep," Two-Bit said. Another thought occurred to him and he grinned. "Blondes…"

"Excuse me, I resent that remark," Carmen said irritably.

"Resent or resemble?" Two-Bit said. Carmen wanted to smack the smile off his face.

"Too easy," she said.

"What's your great idea, then?" Two-Bit said, offended.

"I'm thinking," Carmen mumbled.

"Think fast, the sun's coming up."

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Russell wove the strands of light together as fast as Mordred could spin them, hastily knotting the ends together, weaving a Navajo-type rug and bringing a whole new meaning to "weaving a spell".

"Do not leave any gaps or spaces between the threads," Mordred warned. "We mustn't leave any room for them to escape before they overcome the rug…which they won't be able to."

Russell double-checked all his knots and threads before finishing the final portion of the rug: he left, as per Mordred's instructions, a tiny hole on the edge. As Mordred had explained, the Navajos had believed, hundreds of years ago, that a rug without a tiny hole would become tangled with a dark wind. The hole in their rug was the only way out of the stage Mordred was setting.

Russell wondered what Carmen and the mortal were plotting. Mordred and he had been working on this rug all night, but Russell had little doubt that Mordred was somehow spying on them. With all the power he had, he could conduct as many as five spells at once.

Mordred scrutinized the rug an inch from his nose. "Well, well," he said deviously. "It seems, boy, that your fumbling lack of order in weaving this spell has added to it aspects that I never would have dreamed of. No doubt it was an accident, but, then again, many a great invention has come about by fault."

His eyes narrowed. "Idiot! You've made faults in the pattern concerning the Tryvcrt." His expression changed as he continued inspection. "No matter. If it doesn't get them, the grand finale will." He chuckled.

He folded the rug over his arm and glanced out the window. They were in the topmost tower. Russell blinked at the dull light of the rising sun.

"It is time," said Mordred.

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The torches flickered and then went out. Two-Bit and Carmen were plunged into darkness. Two-Bit dropped Carmen's hand and shivered involuntarily.

"Time's up," Mordred said softly from somewhere in from of them. A flame was lit, and the wizard was cast in eerie light that sharpened the hard, bony edges of his face and lent an evil glint to his malicious eyes.

The flame's light grew steadily, until they were surrounded by a circle of insatiable fire.

Two-Bit was reminded bizarrely of the Johnny Cash song.

"Are you prepared?" Mordred asked.

Two-Bit stole a glance at Carmen, who nodded. She held out, with both hands, a beat-up paperback book opened to the first page. Although flabbergasted, Two-Bit had enough sense to keep his mouth shut. His confusion only increased when Mordred unfurled before them what looked like a Native American rug.

Mordred beckoned his apprentice forward. Russell stepped up and descended headfirst into the book Carmen was holding out. No stranger to disappearing into seemingly solid objects, Two-Bit reasoned that the book must be the start of whatever obstacle course Mordred had to overcome.

Mordred ascended air like it was a stepladder to the level that Carmen was holding out the book, and slid neatly through the pages.

"Come on," Carmen said. She gingerly tapped the rug with her sneaker. Taking a deep breath, she stood on it and sank through it like quicksand. One moment, Two-Bit was looking at her. The next, the threads were closing over her head.

Two-Bit swallowed hard. _It doesn't matter,_ he tried to reassure himself. _I still live either way._

_But what about Carmen?_

He didn't have time for this. Holding his breath, he scrunched his eyes shut, bent his knees, and jumped. There was the fleeting sensation that he had leapt off the high dive into the deep end of the pool, cool chlorine all around him. He dared to open his eyes, but as soon as he did, it was gone.

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And that's that chapter. Okay, listen up: I have two ideas. I could make this short and sweet and end it quick, or make it drag like ten chapters more, but it would have more action scenes and whatever. Your choice. Vote now or condemn yourself to whatever I choose.


	28. Too Easy, Too Easy

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Too Easy, Too Easy

Two-Bit's knees collided sharply with the floor of yet another dungeon. "Ow."

"Took you long enough," Carmen muttered from next to him.

"Sorry," Two-Bit mumbled distractedly, glancing around. It was nearly pitch black, void of any light except a thin stream flooding in from a single high-up window.

He squinted around. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, a small altar on the opposite side of the room came into focus. "What's that?" he said.

Carmen shrugged. "I don't know," she said, taking a cautious step forwards. Two-Bit followed just behind her, switchblade drawn. They were both braced for whatever unpleasant surprise Mordred might have in store for them.

Because the room was cast in darkness, it wasn't until they were right by the altar that they realized that upon the altar rested the fresh bloody remains of a man brutally murdered.

Carmen screamed and staggered backwards. Two-Bit was paralyzed, numb at the sight. He'd seen dead bodies before—he had been at Johnny's and Dallas's funerals—but nothing like this. He found himself more concerned for Carmen than for himself. He was a greaser, a hood. He could handle it. At least he hoped. He was beginning to feel nauseous.

A rattling stirred him from his trance. He turned to see Carmen fumbling with a door handle.

"No!" he yelled, grabbing her hand. "Girl, you crazy? You don't know what he's got out there! I know you're scared and everything, but running out into a dragon's mouth or whatever ain't gonna solve nothing!"

Carmen's terrified expression had transformed into an annoyed one. "Well, do you see any other way out of here?"

"Well, no."

"Then how do you propose we get out of here?"

Two-Bit frowned. He was beginning to think she had tricked him somehow. "Just be careful," he said sharply.

"Okay," she said. She motioned for him to get behind her, and he did so. They stood aside from the door so that they could jump to the side if necessary. Carmen cautiously twisted the door handle. They held their breath, expecting the worst…

It was locked.

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Carmen exhaled exasperatedly. Two-Bit started laughing, apparently seeing the funny side of it, but quickly turned it into a coughing fit as Carmen gave him a nasty glare.

"What do we do now?" he asked.

"I don't know," Carmen said calmly. She had an idea of what they might have to do—she had enough experience with Mordred's plots to know the kind of stuff he would do—and she really, really didn't want to do it.

Two-Bit, meanwhile, was wandering around the dungeon, searching for clues but scrupulously avoiding the dead body.

_This could take forever if I don't do something quick,_ Carmen thought. She took a deep breath and began walking towards the altar…

But just then the ground dropped from beneath their feet.

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"Too easy, too easy," Mordred chuckled, shaking his head at what Carmen had created. Russell didn't see what looked so easy; it looked like the pits of hell to him. And he knew what those looked like.

"My poor stupid apprentice…ex-apprentice," Mordred sighed. Once again Russell felt exposed as his mind was read. "All we have to do is walk through the gaps in her spell, this illusion she has created for us."

"What gaps?" Russell asked. There weren't any as far as he could see.

Mordred raised an arm, and the pits of hell before them distorted and reshaped, a tunneled chamber of free passage now.

"But…" Russell began.

"But what?" Mordred demanded.

Russell shook his head. _But that's cheating,_ he had wanted to say, but he knew it would be lost on Mordred. Besides, the wizard was probably reading his mind anyway, so why say anything at all?

Mordred looked at him intently. "Wise decision," he said. "Come on, then. We haven't time to waste."

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They all landed simultaneously back in Mordred's chamber.

"What the hell?" Two-Bit said. "We didn't make it past the first room!"

"Too bad," Mordred said. "You lost."

"And you cheated," Russell said loudly.

"Shut up, worthless infidel," Mordred said scathingly, waving an arm carelessly. As he did so, Russell was flung across the dungeon, bounced off the wall and was booted out the door as if by an invisible bouncer.

Carmen was filled with a sickening dread that only worsened as Mordred turned to her, a triumphant smirk on his face.

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Hopefully it'll end at chapter thirty.


	29. Worse Than Dallas Winston

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Worse Than Dallas Winston

"I shall take you from your sorcery," Mordred said. "It will be so much quicker and painless if you do not struggle. You know the end is inevitable."

"Isn't it always though?" Carmen said softly. "The only certain thing in life…is death."

"Indeed. And yours shall be now."

"You promised me a moment alone with Two-Bit?" Carmen said. "Before…" she refused to put a name to the event.

Her face was straight and blank, her eyes flatly neutral. Mordred could search all he wanted, but he would find no emotion with which to deduce her true intentions. Without Carmen's sorcery and mind-reading, he couldn't beat her at her own game.

Mordred glared suspiciously at her. Carmen could feel him trying to penetrate her mind, but to no avail. _He's going to know I have something to hide if he can't read my mind,_ she realized. _So show him what he needs to see._

She opened her mind a crack and tried to appear as hopeless and innocent as possible, which was no mean feat.

"I suppose," Mordred said after a while. "But make it quick. I shall deal with Trayakal whilst you two sort out your muddled teenage affairs. After many months in pursuit of you, I grow impatient."

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"Kill me," Carmen whispered before Two-Bit could say a word. "Kill me now, so Mordred can't get my magic."

Two-Bit couldn't talk for a moment. "What?" he finally blurted.

"You heard me," Carmen said. "And you heard him. As soon as my power is his, he'll be so powerful, the world won't be able to survive it."

Two-Bit finally managed to get a coherent sentence out. "I won't do it," he said stubbornly.

"Two-Bit," Carmen said. "Don't pretend you haven't known this wasn't going to happen all along."

"No," he breathed aloud.

"This is the only way," she whispered.

_No,_ Two-Bit said desperately, switching back to mental communication. _There must be another way._

_If we get out of this, Mordred is just going to find another way,_ Carmen pointed out. _If living means living this life, then I don't want to live._

_I thought you were stronger than that,_ Two-Bit said bitterly.

_I'm not,_ Carmen said. _I can't do this._

_I can't do this to you!_ Two-Bit exclaimed. _What you're asking me to do…I can't do it._

_Yes, you can._

_No, I can't._

_You have to,_ she said. _If you don't do it I'll do it myself._

Two-Bit shook his head. _You can't do this. I won't let you._

Carmen's mirthless laughter echoed hauntingly in his mind. _What can you do to me that Mordred hasn't already?_ she asked, but not mockingly. The sincerity of her question raised an unfamiliar ache in Two-Bit's heart. He let go of her hand and blinked furiously even though there were no tears in his eyes.

He swallowed hard. His mouth was dry as he said, _All right._

_You're not a murderer, _she told him.

Their eyes met.

_Is a soldier a murderer? No, he's just doing his job. So are you. It's not murder, and you're not a killer, _she told him.

Two-Bit nodded, although he knew he would never be able to look at himself the same way again. Drinking, fighting, sleeping around, gambling…minor child's play. Even Dallas Winston had never murdered anyone, per say.

_I'm worse than Dallas Winston,_ he thought. _I'm really going to hell now. _

He _was_ a murderer. He would never be able to live with himself after this. And yet he was doing it, for Carmen's sake.

Two-Bit's hand crept slowly to his pocket and drew his blade. Neither of them blinked once. He tried to open his blade as quietly as possible. To cover the noise, he started talking, a load of nonsense.

"Did you hear, Tim Shepard's got a sentence with no parole? He screwed up big time. And that stupid Soc, James Curloff, his car's fixed now. They said it must have rolled down by itself, even though he keeps saying she didn't park it on a hill or anything."

He stopped talking. He wasn't saying anything worthwhile. Carmen's eyes were shining with brief amusement.

Two-Bit was blinking away real tears this time. He felt no embarrassment for crying, though. Only remorse. "I'm sorry," he whispered, and slid the knife through her heart.

In the next few seconds, he took her hand. He could feel the pulse from her wrist throbbing against his palm, could hear it thumping in his ears like he could hear his own heartbeat underwater. Already it felt slow, shallow.

Her eyes closed. Two-Bit could see the thin blue veins through the translucent skin of her eyelids. Her lips tried to form words, but Two-Bit couldn't understand a word. This shouldn't happen so fast, should it? He didn't break his gaze from her face, afraid to look anywhere else. He didn't want to see her blood, though he could feel it seeping through his clothes, sticky on his hands.

Mordred saw it, however, as he burst into the room, and he roared in infuriation, but Two-Bit barely heard him through the tumultuous roaring in his ears. Mordred's spell cut through him as Carmen collapsed, and somehow Two-Bit found himself on the floor, crying like a baby and desperately hanging on to Carmen, lifeless and cold beneath him.

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Ding dong, the witch is dead…actually the sorceress. But whatever.


	30. Gone With The Wind

Chapter Thirty: Gone With the Wind

Trayakal would never be quite sure what happened to Mordred next. Gone was the haughty, powerful wizard he had both respected and feared; in its place was a crazed beast.

He tried to guess what was going through Mordred's mind. All those years had led up to this single moment, and faster than he could blink it was gone forever. Mordred's lifelong ambition had shattered in his face, and with it had shattered the last shred of self-restraint Mordred had had.

Magic, wild and untamable, in a normal quantity is enough for one person; Mordred held the magic of thousands within himself. Most powerful wizard or not, he was still a man, and the amount of magic within him must have been suffocating. Trayakal could only imagine the strength he must have had to restrain himself for so long. It wasn't easy, Trayakal knew—it was no wonder his master was half-crazy.

But something within him had now snapped. It didn't matter what had broken or even what caused it anymore. What mattered now was that Mordred was not himself anymore; the magic had taken over. It controlled him, poured forth its power in a frenzy of enraged madness.

Hex after curse after jinx smacked into Two-Bit, but he seemed not to register pain. He was lying on the floor, weeping, his arms solidly around Carmen. Trayakal wanted to grab him by the collar and yell, "She's dead, you moron! Save yourself!" But he stayed back, fearing that the line of fire might be turned on him if he made so much as one false move.

Mordred wrenched Two-Bit off Carmen and shook him by the collar. "Where is it? What have you done with it?"

_Done with what?_ Trayakal wondered. _Silly question,_ he told himself, _he means Aashtri._

"I don't know!" Two-Bit had composed himself enough to say. "I don't know what happened to it!"

"Liar!" Mordred rasped. "It is no longer present in her body. She must have given it to you!"

"I swear to god she didn't!" Two-Bit yelled, sweat mingling with the tears on his face.

Mordred dropped him to the ground. Trayakal stared at his master, transfixed. To look at Mordred's eyes was like looking at the sun; it burned and left spots when you looked away. His left arm was no longer stained black, but what Trayakal could see of his body glowed, illuminated from inside as magic seeped through every pore.

"If you will not speak the truth," Mordred intoned harshly, "I shall bring it forth from you!"

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Two-Bit barely felt anything Mordred did to him. He was numb, his senses dulled from shock. And it was just as well. Mordred tore into him in the only way he knew how to, by causing physical pain.

It would have been worse if he could have tapped into Two-Bit's senses, said or done something that would have emotionally killed him. But he was incapable of such—a lifetime of straightforward, mathematical, logical strategy had rendered him psychologically inept.

Two-Bit didn't know Mordred well, but he knew this. He knew because Carmen had told him once before. He didn't remember when or what the circumstances had been, only that she had said it. She had said, "I don't know what Mordred's doing sending that goon," she had meant Trayakal, "after me. He's usually straightforward in his attacks."

It was just as well that Two-Bit was numb all over, although he was starting to feel a burning sensation in his limbs. He glanced down and received another immense shock at the state of his body: his legs were twisted beneath him, mangled and visibly cracked bones showing white in the bloody mess. His arms were no better off, his fingernails ripped out and his shoulders dislocated, and he could feel a warm liquid sensation in his stomach. Looking down, he saw that it was his own blood.

All this, and yet he was alive. Mordred probably didn't even recognize it, but that was the worst punishment of all.

Mordred wasn't finished yet. "I shall give you one last chance, mortal," he warned. "Tell me what she has done with the power, and you go free."

Two-Bit didn't know. But it was pointless trying to tell that to Mordred. So he did what he always did when all else failed: he lied.

"It's still inside her body," he said.

"You lie," Mordred said curtly.

He thought frantically. _Think, man, think!_ he told himself. _Where's a place that Mordred could never get to it?_

He knew that if he stalled too long, Mordred would see right through his lie. "It's in her mind," he said. "Power goes straight to their minds when they die. Protection or something." What he was saying was utter nonsense and Mordred should have been able to see right through that one.

But Mordred was not in his normal state of mind. At this point, Two-Bit suspected, the animalistic rawness of power had taken over completely, inhibiting Mordred until there was no room left for whatever passed for a soul in that man…

Two-Bit could do nothing as Mordred assaulted Carmen's body. But there was nothing he could do, nothing that would succeed in extracting the power from Carmen's mind that probably wasn't even there.

He could do nothing but watch and hope for the best.

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Trayakal was beyond horror or shock. He was now merely observing with mild interest the scene before him. He didn't care who won or lost at this point, as long as he remained in a state of nonalignment.

Mordred battered Carmen ruthlessly. He beat her relentlessly with his fists where he once would have used magic. At long last he ceased his attack, howling in agony where he once would have cursed in fury.

"It is of no use!" he screamed. "Sorcery is the only way to penetrate the mind, and that is what must be obtained! It is an impossible quest!"

Trayakal instinctively stepped backwards, further receding into the shadows. He was witnessing a terrifying transformation of his master—his former master. He wanted no part of it.

It was a scene straight from a horror movie: Mordred thrashing around on the floor in agony, wild-eyed and the power of magic clashing within him, tangling his rational thought and twisting his very being.

Where's an exorcist when you need one? Trayakal wondered. He turned his eyes away from Mordred, and they fell on Carmen.

He blinked and for a moment he could've sworn he'd seen the color draining from Carmen's face, seen her limbs loosen, her body relax. A chill shimmied up his spine. _She's here,_ the thought crossed his mind, his Finder's sense tingling.

Looking across the room, he could see Two-Bit shivering slightly, too.

It came again, louder and more insistent. _She's here._

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It hadn't hurt. She hadn't felt anything at all as she watched Two-Bit's swimming green eyes, his face already crumpling with the coming tears, except for lightheadedness from blood loss. But that hadn't lasted long.

Her power was liquid silver in her left palm, snaking its way to her heart. It rose to the surface from there, and with it her spirit rose with it; her soul freed of its prison in her body.

It really was true, what they said—about only being truly free in your dreams. Dreams, in which rational thought sleeps and the caged soul is released, inhibitions discarded. She was leaving the clay she had resided in for so long, renouncing life and its burdens. She had never realized how trapped she had been.

Outside, the first few droplets of rain tumbled from the sky.

Carmen knew that she was dead. So why could she still see Trayakal, fading into the background once more, Mordred—What's happening to him? she thought—and Two-Bit, who she had thought would be the last person she'd ever see crying…was that her body?

For a while she just watched, not knowing what she was supposed to do. She did nothing as Mordred abused Two-Bit and her own body, but as the wizard truly began to lose his mind she sprang into action.

Everything was crystalline clear now. She had never realized how small-minded she had been as a human—petty, prejudiced, prioritizing. Without life's burdens, everything was simpler.

Her senses were much better than they were before. She could see every vein in Mordred's pale, translucent skin, hear every sharp ragged breath of Two-Bit's as though he were rasping by her ear, even feel the slightly electric change in the air around Trayakal as his Finder's sense found her. She was impressed; even dead she was susceptible to him. Then she realized that her power was still with her, and his Finder's sense probably just recognized her magical aura, like she was detecting his.

She didn't want to deal with Trayakal, though. Not now and probably not ever. The person she was headed for was Two-Bit.

He shivered as she breezed past him. The hair on his arms stood up as she whispered in his ear: Let me in.

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Two-Bit stiffened. Had he just heard what he thought he did?

"Of course you did, nitwit," she sighed.

Yep. That was definitely Carmen talking to him, just like that was definitely her lying on the ground over there.

"I'm dead," she continued, "But not gone. Let me in."

Two-Bit tried hard to relax, to open his mind to her. It wasn't working.

"Stop trying," Carmen commanded. "Let me in."

He didn't know how. He shut his eyes and thought of her, imagined her to be an angel whispering in his ear, wanted her there with him. And his mind opened to her, swung wide open to let her in. It was the last one that had done it; you had to have complete, unconditional trust for a person to want them inside your mind, the only place you were really safe.

It was like someone was pouring ice water in his ear. He winced, and thankfully the feeling faded fast. It felt crowded, like they were sitting on the same chair. They both fit, but awkwardly.

_What do I do?_ he cried desperately. _Carmen, you can't be dead. I need you._

_I'm right here,_ she said.

_I'm sorry. I killed you, Carmen, how can you be here, how can you stand to—_

Carmen sounded more amused than annoyed as she placated him: _You forget that I asked you to. It's okay, _she said, interrupting his thought. _I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere._

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A shiver ran up Trayakal's arms. _She's here. _

Without warning, Mordred turned around and caught Two-Bit by the neck. When he spoke, it was in a language Trayakal didn't understand.

"_Rhsgtasr hefg kwuhrr aiur Aashtri akuthuyam?"_ he rasped.

Two-Bit couldn't speak for Mordred's bony fingers against his throat. He blinked, once, twice, and Trayakal did a double take. Had his eyes just changed color?

"You have lied, mortal," Mordred spoke in the same manner he had when Trayakal had attempted to run away, "and now shall thou—"

"No."

Trayakal felt his face go pale, his eyes widen, his heart beat faster. The mouth moving had been Two-Bit's, but the voice had been Carmen's.

Mordred dropped his grip on Two-Bit, who landed on his feet. The changes—in movement, facial expression, posture, and, of course, the eyes—were evident. It was Two-Bit's body, but Trayakal could only see Carmen.

"These are my last moments on earth," Carmen said. "When I am gone, so will be my power."

"So shall I take it now!" Mordred's voice grated.

"Go ahead and try," Carmen challenged. "I can leave anytime I want, and when I do, it will be permanent."

"You shall leave your power with the mortal, will you not?"

"You know well enough that once it enters his body it will convert to his own type of wizardry."

"I can and will take it from you!"

"You can't," Carmen stated simply.

Mordred extended a hand towards Carmen. "Truly?" he said quietly. His voice sounded normal now. "Do you truly believe that?"

"Yes," Carmen said.

"Then prove it," Mordred said, his hand still extended.

It was all Trayakal could do not to roll his eyes. Did Mordred really believe Carmen would so easily fall for that one? Of course he would take it.

Apparently she would, because she extended Two-Bit's arm and placed his hand in Mordred's.

Trayakal would never know quite exactly what happened next. The process started the way it always did—magic visibly channeling from the victim to Mordred. But then something occurred that Trayakal had never seen before. The magic flowing freely into Mordred's veins frosted over, literally forming a fine coat of freezing sparkling white dust.

Mordred's expression hardened from one of triumph into one of pain. Yet he did not let go. Trayakal knew he wouldn't, no matter how unbearable the pain became. His ambition overpowered whatever he might feel—physical pain, emotional loss, guilt.

The ice spread once inside Mordred's body, extending to his muscles, his skin. As Trayakal watched in fascinated horror, his master was becoming an icicle.

Carmen maintained her steady grip as the last of the frigid magic extended to Mordred, and she leaned Two-Bit's body forward and blew gently on Mordred.

Trayakal didn't know how to feel—sorrowful, ecstatic—as the body of his master shattered like a dropped hand mirror into a thousand irreplaceable shards.

"He's gone," Trayakal found himself saying stupidly.

"Forever," Carmen said.

"I know why you did it," Trayakal said. "So, how did you do it?"

"I didn't have to," Carmen said calmly. "Mordred was wrong about one thing. He couldn't control all that magic within himself. He was already on the brink of an overload. That was just the last straw. It would have happened with any type of magic."

"How do you know all this?" Trayakal asked.

Carmen smiled, her Mona Lisa-like smirk out-of-place on Two-Bit's mouth. "It's amazing how clear everything is once you're free of being human."

"But…the magic?" Trayakal said. "What happened to it?"

Carmen shrugged Two-Bit's shoulders. "I don't know."

Trayakal didn't know either. But one thing he did know, thanks to his Finder's sense: Mordred was gone. He wasn't anywhere in this world anymore, nor would he ever be. At

long last, the one thing that had driven him so far had killed him: his ambition.

Trayakal breathed a sigh of relief, a sigh of freedom. He turned and walked down the stairs, across the maze of hallways he had memorized over the years. He never stopped once, not even when he slammed the massive mahogany door behind him. He continued walking until he reached the road, when he broke into a run. He was free, and he was never looking back again.

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Slowly, agonizingly, Two-Bit felt Carmen let him back in control over his body. For a moment it was a mystery to him why it was taking her so long, but then he realized what she was doing. She was separating herself from her magic, leaving it all behind.

Their magic had crossed paths before, but for the first time ever they were coming together, fusing into one. Carmen—her spirit or soul or whatever of her was left over—flowed through him. He could feel her in every nerve, in every cell. She was everywhere all at once, and it felt natural, as if she had just always been there, like oxygen.

_Why doesn't it hurt?_ he said.

Carmen didn't answer.

_Carmen?_ he said.

Still no answer.

_Carmen?_ Two-Bit was shouting across his mind now, panicking. _Carmen!_

A strange reaction was taking place in his body. His legs tingled as if they had fallen asleep and were coming to life in pins and needles, his shoulders twitched uncontrollably and the hairs on his arms stood on end.

Shocks as though he had banged his funny bone were shooting through them. He looked down at them. Frayed sinewy threads of skin were braiding, blood vessels sealing and scars fading as he watched, amazed. Within seconds he could stand up.

_Damn,_ he thought. _They don't call it rapid recovery for nothing._

A faint hint of laughter that was not his own came from the back of his mind.

"Carmen!" he screamed aloud. "Carmen, answer me! Where are you? Tell me, goddammit!"

I'm here, she said.

Before he could say anything, Carmen spoke again: _I can't stay anymore._

"What? Whaddya mean, you can't stay?" Two-Bit shouted.

_I could only stay because of my power. Magic is an earthly thing…and I don't belong to the Earth anymore. It was tying me down. _

"Now what?" Two-Bit wailed. "You're just going to leave? Just like that?"

_I'm leaving, but I'm not leaving you._

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Two-Bit said, close to tears again. He had already lost her once; now she was going to do this to him all over again?

_It means I'm leaving you my power. And not just my power. I'm leaving you my abilities…what I could do with my power, so now you can do it too. I'm leaving you a piece of my soul, Two-Bit. _

"What if I need to talk to you?" Two-Bit whispering now for some reason.

_I'll be here. Or there. Or wherever. But you'll find some way to get to me. I found a way to get to my dad, and I know you'll find me too._

And she was gone. Two-Bit felt a chill up his spine and in his chest as her spirit evaporated in the air. For a split second, he could feel a hand grasping his. He closed his instinctively, hoping futilely as he did so that her hand would really be there.

A gentle breeze stroked his face momentarily. And she was gone, with the fury of the wind.

Who knew where she had gone, or where she was going, or even what she had meant by contacting her. Maybe he had to hold an séance.

Whatever it happened to be, Two-Bit could feel her power revving up in him. It was just like the time she had given him some of her power, only multiplied about twenty times over.

It was what he imagined getting high must be like: a danger that morphs to strange beauty and eloquent dependence. He never wanted it to end.

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One more to go. I promise.


	31. Epilogue

Chapter Thirty-One: Epilogue

Winter arrived unusually early and harshly to the Southwest that year with a blizzard in early November. There was one morning when the road was slick with black ice and practically the entire town shut down, but it was a fleeting event and before long the snow melted and things were back to normal. The weather stayed cold, though.

Two-Bit's breath was visible, because it was cold and also because he was smoking. He ground his cigarette underfoot.

"You okay?" Ponyboy asked, blowing cigarette rings. "Even I don't smoke that much. What's up?"

"Nothing," Two-Bit muttered.

"Cause Soda smokes when he's bothered."

Two-Bit's humorous mood had been black for entirely too long, but he couldn't shake it. There had been a time when he could cope by making jokes. Those days were gone. "One, I know damn well that Soda smokes when he's bothered. Two, I ain't your damn brother, thank god."

He caught a glimpse of Ponyboy's hurt and bewildered face, and felt sorry for snapping. But he didn't apologize, at least not aloud.

Not much had happened in the past couple of weeks. He had finished all of the books and had been teaching himself a few new spells. Slowly but surely, he was recovering.

"Where's Carmen been these days?"

"She moved away," Two-Bit lied shortly, already lighting another cigarette.

"So you guys are over," Ponyboy said before taking another drag.

Two-Bit grunted noncommittally.

"It's okay. Girls come and go. Soda got over Sandy."

"Quit comparing me with your damn brother," Two-Bit growled.

"Sorry. I just thought…"

_Shut up,_ Two-Bit felt like telling him. _You don't know the half of it, so shut up._

"She must've been real special," Ponyboy said. "For you to be with her that long."

Two-Bit's head whipped around and he opened his mouth to snap…but then closed it. The kid had a point.

He said instead, "I'm going to Buck's. See you later, Ponykid."

"Okay. See you later," Ponyboy said even as Two-Bit turned and began walking rapidly away.

He had thought a lot about everything that had happened. He wasn't sure if he would ever fully recover from it—but he was moving on. Slowly, but steadily, he was moving on.

Not a day went by that he didn't think about Carmen. So profound her effect had been on his life, he couldn't ever forget her. Not that he wanted to. He had loved her. He still did.

He tossed his cigarette into the street. The wizard shoved his hands deep into his pockets and walked home, deep in thought and memory.

The End.

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Took long enough, don'tcha think? Finally, it's over!


End file.
